Factors Associated With Self-Burning Among Women in Reproductive Age of Ilam: A Case-Control Study in a Western Part of Iran

Abstract

Objective

Self-burning is one way that some people choose to commit suicide, and it has been seen in many nations. This problem is considered as an uncommon method in developed countries and a common method of suicide in developing countries. The present study aimed to identify the factors associated with self-burning among Iranian women in reproductive age.

Method

This case-control study was conducted among 228 (57 cases and 171 controls) women in reproductive age from the Imam Khomeini Hospital of Ilam. A self-report questionnaire was used to determine factors associated with self-burning, including job status, domestic violence, mental health status, education levels, smoking and alcohol use, forced marriage, socioeconomic status, drug history, and family history of self-burning. Data analysis was performed using simple and multiple logistic regression to control the effects of possible confounders.

Results

There was a significant positive association between self-burning and being unemployed and a housewife. Also, the presence of self-burning was increasingly associated with high domestic violence and having history of forced marriage and decreasingly associated with post-diploma education level and a high socioeconomic level.

Conclusion

It is recommended that health and social policy makers pay attention to the social and economic aspects that cause self-burning in women to prevent this problem.

Keywords:

• Reproductive age
• self-burning
• self-immolation
• suicide
• women

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researchers would like to thank all the management and medical staff of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ilam for their supports during data gathering. This work was the thesis of the first author in the School of Public Health of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

ETHICS APPROVAL AND CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE

The running of this study was accepted and approved by the research and ethics Council in IRAN-Tehran University of Medical Sciences-vice chancellor for research, with the code IR.TUMS.VCR.REC.1397.1069. In the process of data collecting, all purposes and details of this study were explained for participants, and people filled out the questionnaire with verbal informed consent. The ethics committee approved the verbal consent for the participants. The questionnaires were without names or identifiable profiles, and participants were assured that none of their inserted information was given to any entity or person.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

DATA AVAILABILITY

Data will not be shared because the university from which the information is collected is not consented to provide the information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohsen Mohammadi

Mohsen Mohammadi, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics, School of Public Health, Knowledge Utilization Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Current address: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics, school of public health, Shahid Sadoughi University of medical sciences, Yazd, Iran.

Saharnaz Nedjat

Saharnaz Nedjat, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics, School of Public Health, Knowledge Utilization Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Maryam Dargahpour

Maryam Dargahpour, Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of medical sciences, Yazd, Iran.

Ahmad Mehri

Ahmad Mehri and Reza Majdzadeh, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics, School of Public Health, Knowledge Utilization Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Reza Majdzadeh

Ahmad Mehri and Reza Majdzadeh, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics, School of Public Health, Knowledge Utilization Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.