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Does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? Findings from the low-income country of sub-Saharan Africa

BACKGROUND: Suicidal behaviors among adolescents is a major public health concern. Psychological factors have been extensively studied known risks linked to suicidal behaviors in the general population. However, the association between food insecurity and suicidal behaviors is less researched, parti...

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Autores principales: Shayo, Festo K., Lawala, Paul S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6657165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31340781
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2212-6
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author Shayo, Festo K.
Lawala, Paul S.
author_facet Shayo, Festo K.
Lawala, Paul S.
author_sort Shayo, Festo K.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Suicidal behaviors among adolescents is a major public health concern. Psychological factors have been extensively studied known risks linked to suicidal behaviors in the general population. However, the association between food insecurity and suicidal behaviors is less researched, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The present study sought to assess the link between food insecurity and suicide behaviors among in-school adolescents. METHODS: The present study was based on the secondary analysis of the first nationally representative sample of the 2014 Tanzania Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS). A total sample of 3,793 in-school adolescents was included in the present analysis. The primary independent variable was food insecurity while the dependent variables of interest were suicide ideation and suicide attempt. Chi-square χ(2) and multivariate logistic regression were used to ascertain the measure of statistical association. In all analyses, a p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Of the 3,793 in-school adolescents, 254 (6·7%) were food insecure. A significantly large proportion of adolescents with suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt were food insecure than their counterparts, respectively. In the adjusted multivariate model, food insecure adolescents were more likely to have experienced suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt: [AOR; 1·8 95% C. I; 1·3–2·5] and [AOR; 2·4, 95% C. I; 1·7–3·3]; p < 0.001, respectively. CONCLUSION: Food insecurity was an independent predictor of suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents. An intervention that targets food security at the school level may protect adolescents of food insecure household from suicidal behaviors. Nevertheless, school-based mental health screening, evaluation, and promotion may be needed for adolescents with suicidal behaviors.
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spelling pubmed-66571652019-07-31 Does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? Findings from the low-income country of sub-Saharan Africa Shayo, Festo K. Lawala, Paul S. BMC Psychiatry Research Article BACKGROUND: Suicidal behaviors among adolescents is a major public health concern. Psychological factors have been extensively studied known risks linked to suicidal behaviors in the general population. However, the association between food insecurity and suicidal behaviors is less researched, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The present study sought to assess the link between food insecurity and suicide behaviors among in-school adolescents. METHODS: The present study was based on the secondary analysis of the first nationally representative sample of the 2014 Tanzania Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS). A total sample of 3,793 in-school adolescents was included in the present analysis. The primary independent variable was food insecurity while the dependent variables of interest were suicide ideation and suicide attempt. Chi-square χ(2) and multivariate logistic regression were used to ascertain the measure of statistical association. In all analyses, a p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Of the 3,793 in-school adolescents, 254 (6·7%) were food insecure. A significantly large proportion of adolescents with suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt were food insecure than their counterparts, respectively. In the adjusted multivariate model, food insecure adolescents were more likely to have experienced suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt: [AOR; 1·8 95% C. I; 1·3–2·5] and [AOR; 2·4, 95% C. I; 1·7–3·3]; p < 0.001, respectively. CONCLUSION: Food insecurity was an independent predictor of suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents. An intervention that targets food security at the school level may protect adolescents of food insecure household from suicidal behaviors. Nevertheless, school-based mental health screening, evaluation, and promotion may be needed for adolescents with suicidal behaviors. BioMed Central 2019-07-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6657165/ /pubmed/31340781 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2212-6 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Shayo, Festo K.
Lawala, Paul S.
Does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? Findings from the low-income country of sub-Saharan Africa
title Does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? Findings from the low-income country of sub-Saharan Africa
title_full Does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? Findings from the low-income country of sub-Saharan Africa
title_fullStr Does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? Findings from the low-income country of sub-Saharan Africa
title_full_unstemmed Does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? Findings from the low-income country of sub-Saharan Africa
title_short Does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? Findings from the low-income country of sub-Saharan Africa
title_sort does food insecurity link to suicidal behaviors among in-school adolescents? findings from the low-income country of sub-saharan africa
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6657165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31340781
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2212-6
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