Related factors of attempted suicide among Beijing psychological aids hotline callers / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objectives:To explore the prevalence and correlates of attempted suicide among Beijing psycho-logical aids hotline callers,in order to provide knowledge of hotline-based suicide prevention.Methods:From De-cember 2002 to December 2008,all the effective callers who consulted themselves'psychological problem,by Bei-jing psychological aids hotline were interviewed by professional hotline operators during the consulting calling.Data of whether callers attempted suicidal behavior in 2 weeks prior to the calling,gender and other 5 demographic char-acteristics of callers were collected via hotline interview.A questionnaire including depression screening scale,com-mon psychiatric symptoms such as delusion,hallucination,etc.,a history of substance abuse or dependence,a histo-ry of suicidal behavior,having had acute or chronic life events,and severity of hopeless was used during hotline in-terview.Logistic regression model was used.Results:In 22 415 interviewed callers,362 (1.6%)callers (233 fe-males)reported that they attempted suicidal behavior in 2 weeks prior to the calling.After adjusted for demographic characteristics,prior suicidal behavior 2 weeks before calling (OR=4.43,95%CI3.37-5.83),hopelessness (OR=2.01,95%CI1.52-2.67),substance abuse (OR=1.97,95%CI1.48 -2.62),acute negative life events (OR=1.94,95%CI1.49-2.52),and severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.45,95%CI1.08-1.95)were associatedwith attempted suicide among hotline callers.Conclusion:The rates of attempted suicide among hotline callers are probably high.Suicide prevention in hotline would shed light on improving coping skills for life events and sub-stance abuse problems for hotline callers.