Cargando…

In-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region

INTRODUCTION: Adolescent and youth mental health problems are increasingly becoming an area of concern in global health. Young people in sub-Saharan Africa experience significant adversities and systemic challenges despite technological advancements and demographic transition that the region is expe...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Aboagye, Richard Gyan, Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku, Seidu, Abdul-Aziz, Okyere, Joshua, Frimpong, James Boadu, Kumar, Manasi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36350793
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275660
_version_ 1784826994030018560
author Aboagye, Richard Gyan
Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku
Seidu, Abdul-Aziz
Okyere, Joshua
Frimpong, James Boadu
Kumar, Manasi
author_facet Aboagye, Richard Gyan
Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku
Seidu, Abdul-Aziz
Okyere, Joshua
Frimpong, James Boadu
Kumar, Manasi
author_sort Aboagye, Richard Gyan
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Adolescent and youth mental health problems are increasingly becoming an area of concern in global health. Young people in sub-Saharan Africa experience significant adversities and systemic challenges despite technological advancements and demographic transition that the region is experiencing. We examined the nexus between experiences of loneliness, low social support, and presence of suicidal ideation among in-school adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. METHOD: A total of 19,119 in-school adolescents from eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa were included in this study. Suicidal ideation was the main outcome variable and loneliness, and social support were the explanatory variables. Percentages were used to summarise the prevalence of suicidal ideation, loneliness, and social support among the in-school adolescents. A multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was later used to determine the association between suicidal ideation and the explanatory variables and covariates using Stata v16. Four models were tested using the regression analysis. We presented the regression results using adjusted odds ratios (aOR), with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Overall, the past year prevalence of loneliness, peer support, one or more close friends, and suicidal ideation were 10%, 33.4%, 90.1%, and 14.5%, respectively. In-school adolescents who felt lonely (aOR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.69, 2.09) were more likely to experience suicidal ideation. However, those who received peer support (aOR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.82, 0.97) and had one or more close friends (aOR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.68, 0.86) were less likely to experience suicidal ideation. CONCLUSION: These results point to the significant roles of loneliness, and lack of social support, in understanding suicidal ideations. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa need to improve child and adolescent mental health policies and programmes to respond to these risk factors and mental health challenges. Programmes with a differential focus on the needs of males and females, younger and older adolescents will be important in the future.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9645589
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-96455892022-11-15 In-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region Aboagye, Richard Gyan Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku Seidu, Abdul-Aziz Okyere, Joshua Frimpong, James Boadu Kumar, Manasi PLoS One Research Article INTRODUCTION: Adolescent and youth mental health problems are increasingly becoming an area of concern in global health. Young people in sub-Saharan Africa experience significant adversities and systemic challenges despite technological advancements and demographic transition that the region is experiencing. We examined the nexus between experiences of loneliness, low social support, and presence of suicidal ideation among in-school adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. METHOD: A total of 19,119 in-school adolescents from eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa were included in this study. Suicidal ideation was the main outcome variable and loneliness, and social support were the explanatory variables. Percentages were used to summarise the prevalence of suicidal ideation, loneliness, and social support among the in-school adolescents. A multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was later used to determine the association between suicidal ideation and the explanatory variables and covariates using Stata v16. Four models were tested using the regression analysis. We presented the regression results using adjusted odds ratios (aOR), with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Overall, the past year prevalence of loneliness, peer support, one or more close friends, and suicidal ideation were 10%, 33.4%, 90.1%, and 14.5%, respectively. In-school adolescents who felt lonely (aOR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.69, 2.09) were more likely to experience suicidal ideation. However, those who received peer support (aOR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.82, 0.97) and had one or more close friends (aOR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.68, 0.86) were less likely to experience suicidal ideation. CONCLUSION: These results point to the significant roles of loneliness, and lack of social support, in understanding suicidal ideations. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa need to improve child and adolescent mental health policies and programmes to respond to these risk factors and mental health challenges. Programmes with a differential focus on the needs of males and females, younger and older adolescents will be important in the future. Public Library of Science 2022-11-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9645589/ /pubmed/36350793 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275660 Text en © 2022 Aboagye et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Aboagye, Richard Gyan
Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku
Seidu, Abdul-Aziz
Okyere, Joshua
Frimpong, James Boadu
Kumar, Manasi
In-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region
title In-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region
title_full In-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region
title_fullStr In-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region
title_full_unstemmed In-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region
title_short In-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Global School Health data to advance mental health focus in the region
title_sort in-school adolescents’ loneliness, social support, and suicidal ideation in sub-saharan africa: leveraging global school health data to advance mental health focus in the region
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36350793
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275660
work_keys_str_mv AT aboagyerichardgyan inschooladolescentslonelinesssocialsupportandsuicidalideationinsubsaharanafricaleveragingglobalschoolhealthdatatoadvancementalhealthfocusintheregion
AT ahinkorahbrightopoku inschooladolescentslonelinesssocialsupportandsuicidalideationinsubsaharanafricaleveragingglobalschoolhealthdatatoadvancementalhealthfocusintheregion
AT seiduabdulaziz inschooladolescentslonelinesssocialsupportandsuicidalideationinsubsaharanafricaleveragingglobalschoolhealthdatatoadvancementalhealthfocusintheregion
AT okyerejoshua inschooladolescentslonelinesssocialsupportandsuicidalideationinsubsaharanafricaleveragingglobalschoolhealthdatatoadvancementalhealthfocusintheregion
AT frimpongjamesboadu inschooladolescentslonelinesssocialsupportandsuicidalideationinsubsaharanafricaleveragingglobalschoolhealthdatatoadvancementalhealthfocusintheregion
AT kumarmanasi inschooladolescentslonelinesssocialsupportandsuicidalideationinsubsaharanafricaleveragingglobalschoolhealthdatatoadvancementalhealthfocusintheregion