A new study conducted by the Yale School of Medicine and VA Connecticut Healthcare System examined the associations of social determinants of health (SDoH) with suicide-related outcomes.
The study, which included a review of 46 meta-analyses, sought to better understand the social drivers that may impact suicide risk to inform clinical practices, future research, and policy solutions to prevent suicide, researchers explained.
“While we know there is no one cause for suicide, understanding how overlapping social drivers, life events, and other risk factors, including environmental, historical and health-related factors can together impact someone’s suicide risk is critical to prevention,” said Christine Moutier, M.D., chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and co-author of the study, in a statement. “We will continue to drive and advocate for more research to inform tailored clinical intervention and policy solutions to protect those more likely to face these risk factors.”
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Key findings include:
- The factors most strongly associated with suicide risk include justice system involvement, exposure to others’ and parental suicide, firearm accessibility, divorce, experience in foster care, release from incarceration, and unemployment in midlife (35-65 years).
- Individuals released from incarceration had a high prevalence of suicide mortality (114.5 per 100,000 persons).
- Experience of childhood abuse, maltreatment, and sexual assault; gender and sexual minority status; and parental suicide mortality were the strongest risk factors for suicide attempt.
- Identification as bisexual and intimate partner violence in women were the strongest risk factors for suicidal ideation.
- The prevalence of lifetime suicidal ideation in homeless individuals was also high (41.6 percent).
- Protective factors associated with a reduced risk of suicide mortality include religious affiliation and being married. School connectedness was also a protective association against suicide attempt and suicidal ideation.