| dc.description.abstract | Background. Adolescent suicide is a global public health concern and the second leading
cause of adolescent death worldwide. This study aimed to estimate the burden of adolescent
suicidal behaviours and its association with violence and unintentional injury, psychosocial,
protective, lifestyle and food security-related factors amongst school-based adolescents across
77 countries in the six World Health Organization (WHO) regions.
Methods. This study comprised a sample of 251 763 adolescents drawn from the latest Global
School-based Student Health Survey of school-based adolescents, aged 11–17 years, across
77 countries. Logistic regression analyses were employed to estimate the adjusted effect of
independent factors on adolescent suicidal behaviours.
Results. The population-weighted 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI), suicidal
planning (SP) and suicidal attempts (SA) amongst school-based adolescents was 18, 18 and
16%, respectively. Adolescent suicidal behaviours (i.e. SI, SP and SA) were respectively asso-
ciated with being physically attacked, physical fighting, high levels of anxiety, feeling lonely,
being bullied, lack of parental support, poor peer support, not having close friends and
high levels of sedentary behaviours. Overall, these associations also extended to the context
of food insecurity across regions and country income groups, where the magnitude of asso-
ciation slightly varied from odds ratios of 1.25 times to 3.13.
Conclusions. The burden of school-going adolescent suicidal thoughts, suicide planning and
suicide attempts is of particular concern in low-resource countries. Comprehensive suicide
prevention programmes for school-going adolescents in LMICs are needed that address
socio-cultural inequities related to violence and unintentional injury, social support and
psychological factors, protective, and lifestyle-related factors. | en_US |
