Suicidal ideation among health field undergraduates: prevalence and associated factors

Abstract

Objective: To identify the prevalence of suicidal ideation and its associated factors in university students from the health field, in a public higher education institution. Method: Cross-sectional study with 142 university students. Suicide Ideation Scale and a questionnaire for characterization were used. Fischer’s exact test, chi-square, Odds-Ratio, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman’s correlation were performed. A significance level of 0.05 was adopted. Results: The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 22%. It was associated to the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, bullying, suicide attempts (p-value = 0.000), and not attending the course desired (p-value = 0.001). It was observed that the higher the score the lower the academic performance (p-value = 0.000). There was a difference in the mean score according to course (p-value = 0.000), and the score was higher among psychology students. Conclusion: The high prevalence of suicidal ideation among university students in the health field reiterates the need to create intervention strategies, especially in the context of universities.