Incidence of Suicide Attempts and its Associated Factors at the Provincial General Hospital Badulla, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Suicide rate in Sri Lanka is higher compared to some countries. It is about 40 per 100,000 compared to 8 per 100,000 in developed countries .This is due to-different methods of suicide such as use of pesticides. Therefore prevention of suicide and deliberate self-harm is a priority in the health services in Sri Lanka. It is important to recognize and understand factors associated with suicidal behaviour when planning interventions and preventive strategies. These are different from one region to another and from one country to another. Even though there are studies done in some parts of Sri Lanka, no studies were found in Badulla district of Sri Lanka which is in central part of the country. This study was a retrospective cross-sectional study. The study was carried out at the Provincial general hospital Badulla, Badulla district, Uva province, Sri Lanka. All patients who were admitted to Provincial general hospital Badulla, Srilanka with suicide attempts between 1st January 2008 and 3 1st December 2008 were included in this study. There were 391 patients admitted with suicide attempts. Data were collected from patients’ medical notes using a data collection tool. Results showed that about 369(94.4%) of the people who took an overdose of pesticide and drugs were below the age of 30. There was a small male preponderance. One ethnic minority (Indian Tamil) seems to have a higher incidence of suicide attempts compared to the percentage of that ethnicity in the study population. More than 50% of suicide attempters were single. Out of the sample size of 391 patients, 369 patients who performed suicide attempts were by poisoning. Interventions to reduce suicide attempts should focus on the high risk groups such as people with mental illnesses, alcohol use, and family history of suicides, younger age and certain ethnic minorities. These interventions need to be specifically designed for this population as the study population in this study was different to rest of the country in socio demographic factors. Further studies needed to explore reasons behind high suicide risk in some ethnic minorities.