Citation

Palacio C, García J, Diago J, Zapata C, Lopez G, Ortiz J, Lopez M. Arch. Suicide Res. 2007; 11(3): 297-308.

Affiliation

School of Medicine, Universidad de Antioquia and Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses. Medellin. Colombia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, International Academy of Suicide Research, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13811110600894223

PMID

17558615

Abstract

The incidence, methods and risk factors for suicide may vary among the different cultures, which makes necessary to study the risk factors for suicide in specific settings in order to design adequate intervention strategies. This study aims to determine the risk factors for suicide in Medelli­n (Colombia). It is a case-control study conducted among 108 individuals who committed suicide and 108 deceased in accidents, matched for age and gender. Both cases and controls were examined by means of psychological autopsy. Conditional logistic regression analysis identified the following factors: Adverse life events in the last six months (OR = 11.81, 95% CI: 4.29-32.52), family history of suicide (OR = 10.82, 95% CI: 2.23-52.47), major depressive episode (OR = 4.58, 95% CI: 1.53-13.67) and expression of a wish to die (OR = 3.54, 95% CI: 1.25-10.06). These findings may suggest that risk factors for suicide are similar across cultures.

Language: en