Background: Suicide is an important, preventable global public health problem that is caused by interaction of numerous environmental, genetic and psychosocial factors. More than one lakh lives are lost every year due to suicide in India and this number is constantly on the rise because of the fact that people are stressed out in today’s competitive world. Several studies have found that risk factors for attempting suicide are different for males and females.
Objective: Present study was done to describe the socio-demographic factors for suicide and also to determine the gender based differences in risk factors if any.
Methodology: We included 77 consecutive participants with attempted suicide who were referred to the Psychiatric department of Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) Shimla. We used a self designed, structured, detailed interview schedule for collection of data regarding socio-demographic. We analysed data using Epi Info v7.0.
Results: We found that suicide attempts were more frequent among young participants (62.3%) and females (57.1%). 66.2% of the study participants were currently married and 87.0% were from the rural background. 54.5% belonged to nuclear family.most of the males (81.8%) were semiskilled, 50.0% of the females were unemployed or home-makers.
Conclusion: Young population is more vulnerable for attempting suicide. initiatives need to be taken at the school and college level that focuses on the youth and especially females. Awareness campaigns regarding coping up with day-to-day stress should target nuclear families. Early identification of such individuals and psycho-social support to prevent suicide attempts is vital.
Impact Factor
2022: 6.012
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