Prevalence and factors associated with suicidal ideation among farmers

This study aimed to analyze the prevalence and factors associated with suicidal ideation among farmers. Cross-sectional study carried out between 2019 and 2020 with 450 farmers in Rio Grande do Norte. The prevalence of suicidal ideation was evaluated using the Beck Suicidal Ideation Inventory, and sociodemographic, health, income, work and alcohol abuse variables were analyzed. The Chi-square test was used to compare the proportions of the outcome between the categories of each variable. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to analyze associated factors and estimate prevalence ratios [PR]. The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 12.4% [95%CI 9.69–15.84] and, in the bivariate analysis, it was associated with sociodemographic, health, income and work variables. In the final multivariate model, the variables that remained significant and were associated with a higher prevalence of SI were: female gender [PR = 3.28], diagnosis of mental disorder in the family [PR = 2.37], presence of common mental disorder [PR = 2.50], alcohol abuse [PR = 2.22] and employment relationship–salaried or temporary [R = 1.91]. Thus, suicidal ideation among farmers is mainly associated with health aspects, especially mental health, work and the female sex, and signals the need to strengthen public policies for suicide prevention with the targeting of effective strategies for the farmers.