Abstract
Objective: By increasing the risk of isolation, fear, stigma, abuse, and economic fallout, COVID-19 has led to an increase in the risk of psychiatric disorders, chronic trauma, and stress, which eventually increase suicidality and suicidal behavior.Thus, the present study intends to evaluate the reason for the attempt to suicide due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the south Indian population.
Design: Cross-sectional study
Setting: The study was conducted in R L Jalappa Hospital and Research Centre, Kolar.
Participants: This study was conducted on 91 patients admitted to the general medicine department due to suicide attempt because of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Methods: A single examiner conducted a structured interview with a pretested questionnaire to all the participants. Participants were asked to indicate the primary reason or motivation for the suicide attempt, consisting of a set of questions on personal and family reasons and work-related reasons. The questionnaire included personal and family concerns (marginalization, fear and uncertainty, domestic abuse, loneliness, grief over loss of loved one) and work-related reasons (economic fallout, high-risk environment, shortage of personnel and PPE). Descriptive analysis for quantitative variable was done by mean and standard deviation and for categorical variable was expressed in frequency, and proportion. For non-normally-distributed quantitative parameters, medians and interquartile range (IQR) were compared across study groups using the Kruskal-Wallis test (> 2 groups). Data was analyzed using coGuide software, V.1.03.
Results: The mean age was 29.47±11.06 years. The majority (43.63%) were aged between 21 to 40 years age group. The majority (72.53%) reported personal and family concerns as reasons/motivation for suicide, whereas only 17.58%reported work-related concerns. There was a statistically significant difference across reason ormotivation for suicide with age (in years) and gender (p value <0.001).
Conclusion: The study concluded that more than half of the patients pointed the personal and family concern as the major reason for suicide attempts in the pandemic. It is vital to emphasize the mental health well-being of the population and take proactive steps to minimize its detrimental effects during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Footnotes
Disclosures: The authors have reported no conflicts of interest or financial support related to this work.
Ethical Committee approval: Ethical Committee approval was taken before initiating the study from Sri Devaraj URS Academy of Higher Education and Research
Abbreviations COVID-19-Coronavirus Disease, ILO-International Labor Organization, IQR-Interquartile Range, SARS-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, S-CVI-Scale Level Content Validity Index.
- Received June 6, 2021.
- Revision received September 29, 2021.
- Accepted January 25, 2022.
