Prevalence And Risk Factors Of Suicidal Behavior Among Hypertensive Patients In Changchun

BackgroundGlobally, suicide is an important public health problem and in China, it isrecorded to be the fifth most important cause of death. While the cause of suicides inmost countries are due to mental health, in China, the cause of suicide deaths are froma combination of multiple factors including socio-demographic, physical illness, theindividual’s coping ability and the availability of social support. In contrast,hypertension is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease and prematuremortality in the world; and in China, hypertension is a common health problem with arising prevalence. Some studies have shown that hypertension may be associated withsuicidal behavior. However, to date, there are no published studies done on theprevalence and risk factors of suicidal behavior among hypertensive patients.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors ofsuicidal behavior which includes suicide ideation, planning and attempt amonghypertensive patients in Changchun, Jilin Province, People’s Republic of China.Research design and methodsA cross-sectional design was used. Participants were a random, multistagestratified sample of1216patients who successfully completed the face-to-faceinterviews. The prevalence of suicide ideation, planning and attempt were calculatedand the differences between non-suicidal and suicidal behaviors with the independentvariables which included socio-demographic features, hypertensive risk factors,Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) and Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS) scores were tested using independent samples t and χ2tests. Logisticregression analysis was used to determine the association between the suicidalbehaviors and the independent variables. ResultsThere were932participants of a potential1216participated; lifetime and12months prevalence were: suicide ideation (6.4%and1.7%, respectively), suicideplanning (2.3%and0.3%) and attempt (1.3%and0.1%). Univariate analyses showedthat age of less than60years old (P=0.001), the female gender (P=0.034) and beingmarried (P=0.003) were positively associated with lifetime suicidal ideation. Age ofless than60years old was also positively associated with lifetime suicidal planning(P=0.024) and attempt (P=0.008). The rest of the independent variables were notsignificantly associated with both lifetime and12months prevalence of suicidalbehaviors. Multivariate analyses showed that age of less than60years old (OR=3.17,P<0.001) and negative coping style (OR=1.80, P=0.019) were positively associatedwith lifetime suicidal ideation but was negatively associated with individuals whowere married (OR=0.31, P<0.001). Age of less than60years old was also positivelyassociated with both lifetime suicidal planning (OR=3.35, P=0.016) and lifetimesuicidal attempt (OR=5.63, P=0.028). Multivariate analysis for12months prevalenceof suicidal behavior showed that negative coping style (OR=3.53, P=0.010) werepositively associated with suicidal ideation. Positive coping style and social supportwere not significant for both lifetime and12months prevalence of suicidal behaviors.ConclusionsThe prevalence of suicidal behaviour for hypertensive patients in Changchunmay be higher than the normal population level; age, gender, marital status andnegative coping style may be influencing factors for suicidal behaviour. As this wasprimarily an observational study, findings from this investigation might act as a guidefor further future research studies especially in the efforts to prevent and reduce therisk of suicide among hypertensive patients in the Chinese population.