ArticleThe International journal of social psychiatry2019
Food insecurity, mental distress and suicidal ideation in rural Africa: Evidence from Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana.
Article in The International journal of social psychiatry, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prevalence of suicidal behavior in nigeria: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Pooled it
- Focusing attention on the important association between food insecurity and psychological distress: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Food insecurity and its impact on substance use and suicidal behaviours among school-going adolescents in Africa: evidence from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Factors Associated with Suicidal Behavior in Farmers: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Evaluating potential mediators for the impact of a family-based economic intervention (Suubi+Adherence) on the mental health of adolescents living with HIV in Uganda.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Trial
- Social Media Constructions of Alcohol as Emotional Coping and Social Connection in Ghana: Qualitative Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2026Article
- Pathways to suicide attempts in rural Uganda: a qualitative study of survivors, family members, and healthcare providers, and community health workers.International journal of mental health · 2026Article
- Using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale to Assess Suicidality Among Young Women in the Urban Slums of Kampala Uganda: Baseline Findings from the TOPOWA Cohort Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Adolescent mental well-being and household food security: insights from a cross-sectional study in Irewole local government area, Osun State, Nigeria.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Food insecurity and mental health outcomes among people with HIV in West Africa.AIDS (London, England) · 2025Article
- Overlapping caregiving demands and their association with poor subjective health and wellbeing and food insecurity among older rural South Africans.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Anxiety and sleep mediate the effect of food insecurity on depression in single parents in Ghana.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Life Satisfaction Factors, Stress, and Depressive Symptoms among Young Women Living in Urban Kampala: Findings from the TOPOWA Project Pilot Studies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Integrated child nutrition, parenting, and health intervention in rural Liberia: A mixed-methods feasibility study.PloS one · 2024Article
- Household food insecurity, family size and their interactions on depression prevalence among teenage pregnant girls in Ghana, a population based cluster survey.BMC women's health · 2023Article
- Prevalence and associated determinants of suicidal ideation and attempt among people with severe mental disorders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia a cross-sectional study.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- Factors associated with mental health of internal migrants (Kayayei) in Agbogbloshie-Ghana.BMC women's health · 2023Article
- A scoping review of counseling interventions for suicide prevention in Africa: Few studies address this life-saving aspect of mental health treatment.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
- Multiple aspects of energy poverty are associated with lower mental health-related quality of life: A modelling study in three peri-urban African communities.SSM. Mental health · 2022Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundIn sub-Saharan Africa, mental and substance-related disorders account for 19% of all years lived with disability, yet the intersection between poverty and mental distress is poorly understood since most psychiatric research is conducted in high-income countries.
aimsTo examine the prevalence of and associations between food insecurity, mental distress and suicidal ideation in three rural village clusters in sub-Saharan Africa.
methodCross-sectional multivariate analysis of sociodemographic variables associated with mental distress and suicidal ideation in three countries. The sample included 1,142 individuals from three rural village clusters in Nigeria ( n = 380), Uganda ( n = 380) and Ghana ( n = 382). Food insecurity was measured based on the number of months in the previous year that the respondent's family reported being 'unable to eat two square meals per day'. Mental distress was assessed using the Kessler non-specific psychological distress scale (K6) and suicidal ideation was measured using an item from PRIME-MD. Other sociodemographic variables included gender, age, literacy and occupation.
resultsThe prevalence of individuals with moderate or severe mental distress in Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana were higher than previously reported in the literature: 35.5%, 30.8% and 30.4%, respectively, and suicidal ideation rates were 29.7%, 21.3% and 10.9%. No differences were observed in mental distress between men and women in any of the sites. Being a farmer (vs student or other) was protective for mental distress in two sites (Uganda and Ghana) but no other social indicators, such as age, gender, literacy and food insecurity, were significantly associated with mental distress. Risk for suicidal ideation differed across sites: it was associated with food insecurity in Nigeria, female gender in Uganda, and older age in Uganda.
conclusionsMental distress and suicidal ideation were highly prevalent in three settings of extreme poverty across all groups, in ways that were not always consistent with the global literature. These findings suggest that more research is needed in to better understand the social etiology of mental distress in sub-Saharan Africa.
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