A Study on Suicide Ideation among Medical Students in  Mangalore

Authors

Suicide, Stress, Isolation, Medical students, Beck’s scale, suicidal ideations

Introduction: Suicide is the second most common cause of death among adolescents in industrialized

countries and high rates are being reported from India recently. Objectives: To determine the prevalence

of suicidal ideation among students in a medical college in Mangalore and to associate the same with

various socio demographic characteristics. Materials & Methods: A cross sectional (health survey) study

done using pre-validated, structured and self-administered questionnaire based on Beck’s scale of suicidal

ideation, elicits questions on demography, life events and suicide ideation. Universal sampling method was

followed and Chi Square test was done to test the significance (p<0.05). Results: Among 415 students,

179(43.1%) were males and 236(56.9%) were females. 3.6% and 8.9% had high and moderate risk of

committing suicide respectively. 3.3% felt to attempt suicide at least once in last 12months and 27.9% did

not care if they live or die. Suicidal Ideations were more significant among individuals with habits such as

smoking and alcohol (p=0.036) and other addictions (p=0.006). Characteristics such as being neglected by

parents, being physically assaulted by seniors, having psychiatric illnesses were more statistically significant

to have suicidal ideas than other characteristics. Conclusion: Social factors have major impact on suicidal

ideation among students. Identification of high risk adolescents is important to prevent suicides

G Shiny Chrism Queen Nesan1 , Rashmi Kundapur2 , G Rakesh Maiya1

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Saveetha Medical College and Hospital, Chennai, 2 Professor, K. S Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore