Abstract:
Abstract
Background: Conflict remains a substantial threat to global population health. Internally
displaced persons are among the most vulnerable people to suicide ideation and attempt. It was
seriously affecting internally displaced people which results in psychological, social,
economical, and humanitarian crisis, but less was known about the burden of suicide and
associated factors among displaced people specially Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of suicidal ideation and attempt
among internally displaced people in North Gondar zone, northwest Ethiopia, 2022
Methods: Cross sectional study design was conducted from May 23 to June 22, 2022, and
simple random sampling was used to select a sample of 765 participants. Data was collected by
structured interviewer administered questionnaire. The Composite International Diagnostic
Interview was used to assess suicidal ideation and attempt. Data was entered to Epi-Data version
4.6.0 and exported to STATA version 14 for analysis. Bi-variable and Multi-variable logistic
regression analysis were done to identify factors associated with suicidal ideation and attempt.
Adjusted Odds Ratios with 95% confidence interval was calculated and those variables with P
value of < 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
Result: From a total of 765 participants, 751 were involved with a response rate of 98.2%. The
twelve month prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempt were found to be 22.4%(95% CI:
19.5%, 25.4%) and 6.7%(95% CI: 5.1%, 8.7% ) respectively. In the multivariable analysis
female sex(AOR=2.54 95% CI: 1.62, 4.00), having depression(AOR=3.57 95% CI: 2.32, 5.49),
PTSD(AOR=2.87 95%CI: 1.88, 4.37), family history of mental illness(AOR=2.42 95% CI: 1.39,
4.21) and having poor social support(AOR=2.29 95%CI: 1.21, 4.34) were factors significantly
associated with suicidal ideation whereas, female sex(AOR=3.39 95%CI: 1.44, 8.00), having
depression(AOR=4.69 95%CI: 1.99, 11.08), family history of mental illness(AOR=3.73 95% CI:
1.76, 7.88) and death of family member(AOR=3.10 95% CI: 1.45, 6.65 ) were factors
significantly associated with suicide attempt.
Conclusion and recommendation: This study revealed that at least one in five of the displaced
people in this sample had experienced suicide ideation and one in fifteen had attempted suicide.
Therefore to strengthen early detection and intervention of individuals is better especially for
females, having depression, PTSD, family history of mental illness, poor social support and
death of family members.
Key words: suicide, suicidal ideation, suicidal attempt, internally displaced people, Ethiopia
