Prevalence of suicidal behaviour among nursing and midwifery college students in Ghana

Abstract

Aim: To provide exploratory and descriptive evidence on the prevalence estimate and some demographic correlates of suicidal behaviour among nursing and midwifery college students in Ghana. Design: We used a cross-sectional survey design. Method: An anonymous survey involving a randomly selected sample of 305 nursing and midwifery college students was conducted in March–May 2017. The Suicide Behavior Questionnaire-Revised was used to assess suicidal behaviour (i.e., ideation, planning, threat and attempt) and suicidal behaviour risk. Results: The lifetime prevalence of suicide ideations (15.4%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.11–0.20), plans (6.6%; 95% CI = 0.04–0.10), attempts (2.3%; 95% CI = 0.01–0.05), threats (13.4%; 95% CI = 0.10–0.18) and 12-month prevalence of ideations (21.3%; 95% CI = 0.17–0.26) are comparable to estimates found in both high-income and low- and middle-income countries. However, associations between the demographic variables studied and suicidal behaviour risk were not statistically significant.