How socioprofessional factors effect serious suicide attempts: a case–control study
Keywords:
suicide prevention, suicide attempt, severe suicide attempt, socioprofessional factors, high skill levelAbstract
Background and aims: A serious suicide attempt (SSA) is defined as a suicidal act that requires subsequent hospitalization for more than 24 hours. As some occupations have been identified as being at an increased risk of suicide, we hypothesized that certain socioprofessional factors act as risk factors for SSAs. To test this hypothesis, we assessed whether occupational status, learned or current occupation, the skill level required for that occupation, and socioeconomic status differed between people who had made an SSA (i.e., cases) and those who had made a non-serious suicide attempt (i.e., controls). Research design and methods: We used data from a self-harm monitoring program in the French-speaking regions of Switzerland. Associations between SSAs and socioprofessional factors were assessed using univariate and multivariable logistic regression models. Results: The study sample comprised 320 cases and 1468 controls. Data on recent interruptions to employment, suffering at work, and the highest level of education reached differed significantly between the cases and controls. Differences in occupational status were of borderline statistical significance. The proportion of active employees was higher among controls than among cases, but data on cases’ occupation and education were more often unknown. High levels of professional skills and being employed in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences were associated with SSAs. Among these, architects, engineers, and related professionals were the most at risk in the univariate model, although multivariate analyses failed to confirm this. Conclusion: Findings suggested that some occupational variables were associated with a higher probability of SSAs. However, there were lots of missing values among the predictor variables. These issues could be remediated by improving training for team members involved in data collection and paying greater attention to the socioprofessional factors affecting suicidal behavior.
References
Referee 1: Prof. Nav Kapur, University of Manchester, UK, nav.kapur@manchester.ac.uk
Referee 2 : Prof. Guillaume Vaiva, Lille Hospital, gvaiva@chru-lille.fr
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Copyright (c) 2024 Stephane Saillant, José Paz, Philippe Golay, Louise Ostertag, Bénédicte Van der Vaeren, Yves Dorogi, Laurent Michaud, Irina Guseva Canu, Alessandra Costanza
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