Life stress and suicidal ideation in Australian men – cross-sectional analysis of the Australian longitudinal study on male health baseline data
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BACKGROUND: Suicide is a leading cause of death in Australian males aged 18 to 55. Non-fatal suicidal behaviours and thoughts are indicators of increased risk for future suicide. Suicidal behaviour is complex and multi-determined. Research supports the involvement of stressful life events in suicide and suicidal behaviour, however the evidence regarding suicidal thoughts is less developed. This study investigates stressful life events in relation to suicidal ideation in a large cohort of adult males recruited into Ten to Men, the Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health. METHODS: Baseline data from a national cohort of 13, 884 males aged 18-55 years on suicidal behaviour, psychiatric disorder and life events was used. Multivariable logistic regressions were conducted with current suicidal ideation as the outcome and 12 month life events, 12 month depression, anxiety and harmful/hazardous alcohol use, and socio-demographics as covariates. Further logistic regression models investigated the relative risk of life stress alone, depression/alcohol/anxiety alone and co-occurring life stress and depression/alcohol/anxiety. RESULTS: In multivariable models there was an independent contribution to suicidal ideation for six of 24 life events (ORs 1.27-1.95), 12 month depression (OR 4.49) harmful alcohol use (OR 1.38) and anxiety disorders (OR 1.27). Life events co-occurring with depression (OR 10.3) was higher risk than either alone (depression OR 6.6; life stress OR 2.6). There was a lesser effect for co-occurrence in the anxiety and harmful alcohol use models. CONCLUSION: Life events appear to be related to suicidal ideation independent of depression, anxiety and harmful alcohol use in adult males, however if life events occur in the context of depression that risk is substantially increased.
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The study included only the six life events that had been found significantly associated with suicidality in a previous analysis of Ten to Men data.
“For the current study, we included only the six life events that we had found to be significantly associated with suicidality in a previous analysis of Ten to Men data [29,30]”
From Masculinity and suicidal thinking (2017) · cites this paper as [29]
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- Authors
- Currier, D., Spittal, M. J., Patton, G., & Pirkis, J.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Currier, Dianne
- Venue
- BMC Public Health
- Published
- 2016-10
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- S3
- Pages
- 1031-1031
- ISSN
- 1471-2458 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5103247
- OpenAlex
- W2541818955
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 5.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- BMC Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Australian Government
- University of Melbourne
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- suicidal ideation, life events, men's mental health, depression, anxiety disorders, hazardous drinking, suicide risk factors
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Alcohol Drinking, Anxiety, Australia, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Humans, Life Change Events, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Men, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Stress, Psychological, Suicide, Suicide, Attempted, Logistic Models, Odds Ratio, Men's Health, Young Adult, Suicidal Ideation
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