Suicidal behaviors among newly diagnosed people living with HIV in Changsha, China

ABSTRACT

Newly-diagnosed people living with HIV (NPLWH) are at high risk of suicide. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of suicidal behaviors among NPLWH, and explore the relationships between HIV-related stress, depression, anxiety, and social support and suicidal ideation after diagnosed with HIV infection. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a standard set of questionnaires during 1 March 2013 and 30 September 2014 in the HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counseling and Testing Clinic of the Changsha Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Among 557 NPLWH, 27.5% (n = 153) had lifetime suicidal ideation, and 25.0% (n = 139) had suicidal ideation after HIV diagnosis. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that suicidal ideation after HIV diagnosis was associated with HIV-related clinical symptoms (OR = 2.50), HIV-related stress (OR = 3.64), the co-morbidity of positive depressive and anxiety symptoms (OR = 3.30), and social support (OR = 0.52). Overall, the prevalence of suicidal behaviors is high among NPLWH in Changsha emphasizing the need of suicidality monitoring and tracking, depression and anxiety screening, with an additional focus on stress management and social support enhancement in this vulnerable group.

KEYWORDS:

• Suicidal behaviors
• HIV
• suicidal ideation after HIV diagnosis
• psychosocial factors
• China

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the survey respondents and the staff of Changsha Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Changsha Hospital for Infectious Disease Hospital, and those investigators from Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, for their kindest contributions and assistances to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Dan Luo [grant number 81202290], and the U.S. National Institutes of Health under Dan Luo [grant number D43 TW009101].