Prevalence of Suicide in Immigrants/Refugees: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Objective

In recent years, there has been an increase in immigrant populations worldwide. This study aims to present the global prevalence of suicide between immigrants and refugees as well as to report the prevalence of suicide ideation, suicide mortality, suicide attempts, and plan of suicide.

Method

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA’s) rules were used as a guide in the current research path. PubMed and EMBASE were targeted for the study until December 2019. After collecting the data, the number of events and sample size extracted for each study and also pooled odds ratio and confidence interval (CI) were used to investigate the suicide ratio among immigrants and refugees compared to the native population.

Results

Fifty-one studies were included in the meta-analysis to investigate suicide prevalence or suicide odds ratio. The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 16% (CI: 0.12–0.20, I² = 99.4%), for attempted suicide was 6% (CI: 0.05–0.08, I² = 98.0%), and for suicide plan prevalence was 4% (CI: 0.00–0.08, I² = 96.8%). The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 10% (CI: 0.04–0.17, I² = 0.0%) in men and 17% (CI: 0.10–0.24, I² = 96.8%) in women. The prevalence of attempted suicide was 1% (CI: 0.01–0.02, I² = 0.0%) in men and 7% (CI: 0.03–0.10, I² = 94.4%) in women. The odds ratio of suicide mortality among immigrants was 0.91 (CI: 0.90–0.93, p < 0.001; I² = 97.6%) and for attempted suicide was 1.15 (CI: 1.10–1.20, p < 0.001; I² = 92.0%). Begg’s test (p = 0.933) (Egger test; p = 0.936) rejected publication bias.

Conclusion

Given the high prevalence of suicide, especially suicide ideation and suicide attempts in immigrants, increased attention needs to be paid to the mental health of this population.

Keywords:

• Immigrations
• meta-analysis
• prevalence
• refugees
• suicide

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sohrab Amiri

Dr. Sohrab Amiri, Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Lifestyle Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.