Prevalence and correlates of past 12-month suicide attempt among in-school adolescents in Guatemala

Abstract

Background

The aim of this investigation was to estimate the prevalence of past 12-month suicide attempts and associated factors among in-school adolescents in Guatemala.

Methods

Cross-sectional data from the 2014 “Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS)” included 4,274 students (median age 14 years, interquartile range=2 years) that were representative of all middle school students in Guatemala.

Results

The prevalence of past 12-month suicide attempt was 16.6%, 12.2% among boys and 20.2% among girls. Among students with a suicide attempt in the past year, 52.8% had a suicide plan in the past year. In adjusted logistic regression analysis, male sex and loneliness were associated with past 12-month suicide attempt, and among boys, none of the variables, and among girls, loneliness and current alcohol use were associated with past 12-month suicide attempt.

Conclusion

A high prevalence and several specific factors associated with suicide attempt were identified which can help in guiding preventive strategies.

Keywords:

• suicidal attempt
• demographic factors
• internalizing problems
• externalizing problems
• Guatemala

Acknowledgments

We thank the World Health Organization for making the data available for data analysis (https://www.who.int/ncds/surveillance/gshs/guatemaladataset/en/), and the country coordinator from Guatemala (Olivia J. Brathwaite Dick) for the assistance in GSHS data collection.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.