RESUMO

Suicide poses a debilitating threat to adolescents' lives worldwide. Although suicide prevention efforts are evident globally, there is limited evidence on the prevalence and correlations of suicidal behaviour among school-going adolescents in Saint Lucia. We used a dataset from the 2018 Global School-based Student Health Survey to examine the prevalence and associated factors of suicidal behaviour among 1864 students from schools in Saint Lucia. Prevalence rates of 25.5%, 22.1%, and 17.5% were found for suicidal ideation, suicide plan, and suicide attempt, respectively. After adjusting for other factors, being male and having understanding parents were protective against suicidal behaviour. However, suicidal ideation was predicted by being physically attacked and bullied, parental guidance, tobacco use, loneliness, and worry. Moreover, being a victim of physical attacks and bullying, having close friends, being lonely, and worrying were predictive of making suicidal plans among adolescents. Attempting suicide was predicted by cigarette smoking, current use of tobacco and related products, bullying, having close friends, being lonely, and worrying. School-based preventive interventions are required to help address triggers of suicidal behaviour among adolescents in Saint Lucia and to help attain the targets for suicide prevention in the global Sustainable Development Goals.

RESUMO

Introducción: El planeamiento suicida es un paso previo al intento suicida. En distintas poblaciones se ha encontrado tasas altas de planeamiento suicida en estudiantes universitarios, incluso mayores a las de la población general de la que provienen. Objetivos: Determinar qué factores están asociados a planeamiento suicida en estudiantes de una escuela de nutrición. Diseño: Estudio transversal. Institución: Escuela Académico Profesional de Nutrición de la Facultad de Medicina San Fernando, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Participantes: Estudiantes de nutrición del primer al cuarto año académico. Intervenciones: Se administró una encuesta. Principales medidas de resultados: Significancia estadística en las pruebas de regresión logística. Resultados: En el análisis bivariado, ninguna variable estuvo asociada con planeamiento suicida. Al ajustar a variables socioeconómicas, solo la frecuencia de dificultad para conciliar el sueño en la noche tuvo una asociación significativa (p=0,044). Al ajustar a todas las variables la frecuencia de dificultad para dormir, mantuvo asociación significativa (p=0,039). Conclusiones: La dificultad para conciliar el sueño fue un factor de riesgo independiente significativo de planeamiento suicida en estudiantes de la Escuela Académico Profesional de Nutrición estudiada.

Introduction: Suicidal planning is a previous step to suicide. High rates of suicidal planning among university students have been found in different populations, even higher than in the population students come from. Objectives: To determine which factors are associated with suicidal planning in students from a School of Nutrition. Design: Cross-sectional study. Institution: School of Nutrition, San Fernando Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Participants: First to fourth academic year students of Nutrition. Interventions: A survey was carried out. Main outcome measures: Statistical significance in logistic regression tests. Results: In bivariate analysis none of the studied variables was associated with suicidal planning. In analysis adjusted to socioeconomic variables difficulty to fall asleep at night showed association (p=0.044). Difficulty to fall asleep at night kept its association in analysis adjusted to all variables (p=0.039). Conclusions: Difficulty to fall asleep was a significant independent risk factor of suicidal planning in students from the Nutrition School studied.