Cited by 297Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesHomicide, Infanticide, and Child AbuseInjury Epidemiology and Prevention

Adolescent suicidal behaviours in 32 low- and middle-income countries

Open access
McKinnon, Britt, Gariépy, Geneviève, Sentenac, Mariane, Elgar, Frank J·2016·Bulletin of the World Health Organization

Abstract

Methods Data sourceGSHS is a self-administered, school-based survey developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.19,23 The survey uses standardized school-based sampling and a set of core questionnaire modules that address Objective To estimate prevalence of suicidal ideation and suicidal ideation with a plan in each surveyed country and to examine crossnational differences in associated risk factors.Methods We analysed data of students aged 13-17 years who participated in the 2003-2012 Global School-based Health Surveys in 32 countries, of which 29 are low-and middle-income.We used random effects meta-analysis to generate regional and overall pooled estimates.Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate risk ratios for the associated risk factors.Population attributable fractions were estimated based on adjusted risk ratios and the prevalence of the determinants within each exposure level.Findings Across all countries, the pooled 12-month prevalence of suicide ideation were 16.2% (95% confidence interval, CI: 15.6 to 16.7) among females and 12.2% (95% CI: 11.7 to 12.7) among males and ideation with a plan were 8.3% (95% CI: 7.9 to 8.7) among females and 5.8% (95% CI: 5.5 to 6.1) among males.Suicide ideation in the WHO Region of the Americas was higher in females than males, with an estimated prevalence ratio of 1.70 (95% CI: 1.60 to 1.81), while this ratio was 1.04 (95% CI: 0.98 to 1.10) in the WHO African Region.Factors associated with suicidal ideation in most countries included experiences of bullying and physical violence, loneliness, limited parental support and alcohol and tobacco use. ConclusionThe prevalence of adolescent suicidal behaviours varies across countries, yet a consistent set of risk factors of suicidal behaviours emerged across all regions and most countries.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.2471/blt.15.163295

Cites

41 of 41 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [21]Randall JR, Doku D, Wilson ML, Peltzer K. Suicidal behaviour and related risk factors among school-aged youth in the Republic of Benin. PLoS One. 2014; 9(2): e88233– 9. 10.1371/journal.pone.0088233 24505443 PMC3914941 · DOI
  2. [31]StataCorp. Multiple-imputation reference manual. College Station: Stata Press; 2011.
  3. [46]Page RM, West JH. Suicide ideation and psychosocial distress in sub-Saharan African youth. Am J Health Behav. 2011 Mar-Apr; 35(2): 129– 41. 10.5993/AJHB.35.2.1 21204676 · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
McKinnon, B., Gariépy, G., Sentenac, M., & Elgar, F. J.
Affiliations
McGill University (CA)
Corresponding author
McKinnon, Britt
Venue
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Publisher
WHO Press
Published
2016-05-01
Volume
94
Issue
5
Pages
340-350F
ISSN
0042-9686 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2344725018
Cited by
297
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 3
FWCI
32.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Bulletin of the World Health Organization (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Injury Epidemiology and Prevention
Keywords
adolescent suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, suicide risk factors, bullying, physical violence, loneliness, parental support, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, sex differences, cross-national comparison, low- and middle-income countries
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Psychology, Adolescent, Developing Countries, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Logistic Models, Suicidal Ideation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review