Abstract
Research on the complex relationships of variables contributing to farmer suicide is limited. The purpose of the study was to examine factors associated with suicide risk through the use of standardized instruments measuring psychological (depression, anxiety), social (social support), and contextual factors. A questionnaire was completed by 600 farmers in the Midwestern United States. A multiple linear regression model was used to analyze associations with suicide risk (SBQ-R), including depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), Brief COPE subscales (BC), social support (MSPSS), and select demographic and farming characteristics. The only variable that emerged as having a significant relationship with the natural log-transformed suicide risk score was coping through self-blame. While suicidality is often considered the outcome of mental illness, our findings do not suggest that suicide risk among farmers is related to mental illness, and a further examination of self-blame as a coping strategy is warranted.
Highlights
As the ninth item on the PHQ-9 is about suicide risk, we analyzed the sample without the ninth item
We found that the sample had a mean score of 3.8 (SD 1.7), with 7.6% of the sample (n = 41) at significant risk of suicide
The findings of our study that producers have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide risk, in combination with the existing literature, demonstrate that this population is in need of public health supports for mental wellbeing
Summary
The trend in suicide is not distributed evenly across the population; middle-age White men die by suicide more frequently than other groups [4], and suicide rates in 2018 were higher in most rural areas than urban ones [2]. Attempts to further understand this phenomenon have included analyzing suicide rates by occupation, finding that people who work within agriculture (producers) have suicide rates that are much higher than the general population [5]. With 3.4 million producers in the U.S [6], this is an important population to understand and support through public health programs and interventions. Agricultural producers include individuals who regularly utilize land for the production of crops or commercial livestock, and the majority of farmers in the
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