Prevalence of suicidal thoughts and attempts in the transgender population of the world: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine global pooled prevalence of suicide thoughts and attempts in transgender population. METHODS: For doing comprehensive search strategy related to objectives in the presence meta-analysis, all international databases like PubMed (Medline), Scopus, Embase, Web of Sciences, PsycINFO, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINHAL) were searched from January 1990 to December 2022. The quality of the final selected studies was evaluated according to Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale for cross-sectional studies. The subgroup analysis was done based on type of transgender (female to male, male to female) and prevalence (point, period, and lifetime), country, and criteria of diagnosis. All analysis was done in STATA version 17. RESULTS: From the total number of 65 selected studies, 71 prevalence of suicidal thoughts, including point, period, and lifetime prevalence were extracted and combined. After combining these values, the prevalence of suicidal thoughts in the transgender population in the world was 39% in the past month (pooled point prevalence: 39%; 95% CI 35–43%), 45% in the past year (pooled period prevalence: 45%; % 95 CI 35–54%) and 50% during lifetime (pooled lifetime prevalence: 50%; % 95 CI 42–57%). Also, the prevalence of suicide attempt in the transgender population of the world was 16% in the past month (pooled point prevalence: 16%; 95% CI 13–19%), 11% in the past year (pooled period prevalence: 11%; % 95 CI 5–19%) and 29% during lifetime (pooled lifetime prevalence: 29%; % 95 CI 25–34%). CONCLUSION: The present meta-analysis results showed the prevalence of suicidal thoughts and attempts in the transgender community was high, and more importantly, about 50% of transgenders who had suicidal thoughts, committed suicide. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12991-023-00460-3.