ArticleEpidemiology and psychiatric sciences2020
Does physical ill-health increase the risk of suicide? A census-based follow-up study of over 1 million people.
Article in Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Punitive school discipline as a mechanism of structural marginalization with implications for health inequity: A systematic review of quantitative studies in the health and social sciences literature.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Healthcare experiences and barriers as predictors of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among transgender adults: an elastic net regression analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Health and Family Factors Predicting Suicidal Ideation Among Middle-Aged Korean Adults: An Explainable Machine Learning Approach.Psychiatry investigation · 2026Article
- The relationship between suicidal behavior and hematological inflammatory parameters: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Association between changes in family relationship status and suicidal ideation among individuals with physical disabilities.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Identifying and characterizing suicide decedent subtypes using deep embedded clustering.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Lifetime stressor exposure is related to suicidality in autistic adults: A multinational study.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2025Article
- Article
- Veterans at High Risk for Post-COVID-19 Suicide Attempts or Other Self-Directed Violence.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Objective and subjective suicidal intent are differentially associated with attempt lethality based on age of onset of suicidal behavior.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Associations Between Family Function and Non-suicidal Self-injury Among Chinese Urban Adolescents with and Without Parental Migration.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Barriers and risk factors associated with non-treatment-seeking for suicidality onset during the COVID-19 pandemic among young adults.Psychiatry research · 2024Article
- Article
- Association Between Disability and Suicide Mortality in the Spanish Community-Dwelling Adult Population. A Population-Based Follow-Up Study.International journal of public health · 2024Article
- Five healthcare trajectories in the year before suicide and what they tell us about opportunities for prevention: a population-level case series study.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Correlates for the severity of suicidal risk in participants with common mental disorders with comorbid chronic medical conditions in rural primary healthcare settings in India.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2023Article
- The Effect of Herbal Medicine on Suicidal Behavior: A Protocol for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Suicidality and homelessness: prevalence and associated factors of suicidal behaviour among homeless young adults in Southern Ethiopia.BMC psychology · 2023Article
- Physical Health Problems as a Suicide Precipitant: Associations With Other Risk Factors and Suicide Methods in Three Age Groups of Older Decedents.Innovation in aging · 2023Article
- Trauma-related guilt as a mediator between post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
aimsMental ill-health is a known risk factor for suicide mortality. However, the relationship between physical ill-health and suicide is less clear. This study examined the relationship between different aspects of physical ill-health and the risk of suicide death.
methodsData for 1 196 364 adults (aged 18 years and over) were identified from the 2011 Northern Ireland Census and linked to death registrations until the end of 2015. Multivariate logistic regression was used to construct models to test associations with likelihood ratio tests for interactions.
resultsOver one in eight individuals (13.7%) reported multimorbidity (⩾2 physical health conditions) and one in four (25.4%) identified having limitation of daily activities. During follow-up, 51 672 individuals died; 877 due to suicide. The gradient in suicide risk by number of physical conditions disappeared following adjustment for activity limitation. Individuals with a lot of activity limitation were over three times more likely to die by suicide (OR = 3.13, 95% CI 2.50-3.93) compared to those with no limitations though this was reduced to OR = 1.72 (95% CI 1.35-2.20) with adjustment for poor mental health. The relationship between activity limitation and suicide was most pronounced at younger ages (18-34 years).
conclusionsThis study suggests that it is the effect that physical illness has on a person's life, in terms of disruption to daily activity, rather than the number of conditions that predicts suicide risk, especially at younger ages. Improved awareness and better management of mental wellbeing of individuals with physical health conditions may help to reduce suicides, especially in younger people.
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