TY - JOUR PY - 2020// TI - Global imperative of suicidal ideation in 10 countries amid the CoViD-19 pandemic JO - Frontiers in psychiatry A1 - Cheung, Teris A1 - Lam, Simon Ching A1 - Lee, Paul Hong A1 - Xiang, Yu Tao A1 - Yip, Paul Siu Fai SP - e588781 EP - e588781 VL - 11 IS - N2 - BACKGROUND: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a detrimental impact on individuals' psychological well-being; however, a multi-country comparison on the prevalence of suicidal ideation due to the virus is still lacking.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the prevalence and correlates of suicidal ideation among the general population across 10 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study which used convenience sampling and collected data by conducting an online survey. Participants were sourced from 10 Eastern and Western countries. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to measure the outcome variable of suicidal ideation. Ordinal regression analysis was used to identify significant predictors associated with suicidal ideation.

RESULTS: A total of 25,053 participants (22.7% male) were recruited.

RESULTS from the analysis showed that the UK and Brazil had the lowest odds of suicidal ideation compared to Macau (p < 0.05). Furthermore, younger age, male, married, and differences in health beliefs were significantly associated with suicidal ideation (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the need for joint international collaboration to formulate effective suicide prevention strategies in a timely manner and the need to implement online mental health promotion platforms. In doing so, the potential global rising death rates by suicide during the pandemic can be reduced.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1664-0640 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.588781 ID - ref1 ER -