Comparison of Characteristics of Suicide Attempts Registered in Urban and Rural Areas in China.

Lingling Li,Yongsheng Tong,Mengjie Wu,Wei Zhou,Yi Yin,Jianlan Wu,Ruoyang Tong,Chunxu Liu,Jing An

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.805324

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the characteristics of suicide attempts registered in general hospitals in urban and rural areas in China.Methods: From January 2007 to December 2011, suicide attempts registered in hospitals in five rural counties and in the Beijing Municipality were included. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to compare the characteristics of rural and urban suicide attempts in China.Results: A total of 5,515 episodes of suicide attempts were included, 1,966 (35.6%) of them were from rural counties and 3,549 (64.4%) were from Beijing. Compared with urban counterparts, the rural suicide attempters had lower proportion of females (61.9% vs. 72.3%), more likely reporting previous suicide attempt history (56.9% vs. 16.4%), and staying in hospital for more than 1 day (81.5% vs. 44.6%). The most common methods of suicide attempts were pesticide ingestion in rural areas (52.1%) and taking medications in urban area (39.2%). Results of multivariate analysis indicated that suicide attempt registered in rural areas, pesticide ingestion, and previous suicide attempts history were associated with longer treatment in hospitals.Conclusions: Suicide attempts registered in rural areas were different from those in urban areas in China. It is essential to improve the equipment and ability of medical resuscitation for pesticide ingestion in rural hospitals in China.

Highlights

Suicide is a serious public health issue
Most of the previous studies on suicide attempts in China occurred in the rural area [4, 6,7,8,9], yet little is known about the characteristics of suicide attempts in the urban area
Few literatures focused on the urban–rural differences of suicidal behaviors in China, there were several studies that reported the characteristics of suicide attempts in urban China [13,14,15,16]

Summary

Introduction

Suicide is a serious public health issue. Globally, more than 700,000 people died by suicide, and the age-standardized suicide rate in 2019 was 9.0 per 100,000 population [1]. Understanding the characteristics of suicide attempts is Comparison of Urban and Rural Suicide Attempt helpful for making effective suicide prevention strategy [5]. Most of the previous studies on suicide attempts in China occurred in the rural area [4, 6,7,8,9], yet little is known about the characteristics of suicide attempts in the urban area. Along with the rapid urbanization, the urban population drastically increased in China In this scenario, suicide prevention in urban China would be our concern in the future [12]. To tailor more specific suicide prevention strategies for urban and rural areas, it is necessary to compare the characteristics of suicide attempts between the two different regions in China

Methods

Results

Conclusion