TY - JOUR
T1 - Suicide in South Asia
T2 - A scoping review
AU - Jordans, Mark J.D.
AU - Kaufman, Anne
AU - Brenman, Natassia F.
AU - Adhikari, Ramesh P.
AU - Luitel, Nagendra P.
AU - Tol, Wietse A.
AU - Komproe, Ivan
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the members of our Research Advisory Group, Dr. Arzu Deuba, Dr. Murad Khan, Professor Atif Rahman and Dr. Athula Sumathipala, as well as the external reviewers, Daniela Fuhr (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), and Joanna Teuton (NHS Scotland), for their support and review of the search protocol. We also want to thank the consultants for in-country data-collection, Dr. Hamdard Naqibullah (Afghanistan), Dr. Nafisa Huq (Bangladesh), Ms. Mona Sharma (India), Dr. Jamil Ahmed (Pakistan), and Dr. Tom Widger (Sri Lanka). This research was done with financial support from DFID’s South Asia Research Hub, for which we are thankful. The funding agency had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the manuscript and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© Jordans et al.
PY - 2014/12/24
Y1 - 2014/12/24
N2 - Background: Globally, suicide is an important cause of mortality. In low- and middle income settings, it is difficult to find unequivocal data to establish suicide rates. The objective of this review is to synthesize the reporting of suicide incidence in six south Asian countries. Methods: We conducted a scoping review combining peer-reviewed studies (PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE) with in-country searches for grey literature in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The review included mapping reported suicide rates, quality appraisals of the studies, use of definitions of suicide and means of committing suicide. Results: In total, 114 studies and reports were included in the review, including 50 peer-reviewed publications. Reported suicide rates varied widely from 0.43/100,000 to 331.0/100,000. The average suicide rate across studies was found to be high compared to the world average, however many studies were of poor quality or not representative. The majority of studies failed to explicitly define suicide (84% of the published articles and 92% of the grey literature documents). Poisoning and hanging were consistently the most common methods of committing suicide on the sub-continent. Conclusions: The reported suicide rates in South Asia are high compared to the global average, but there is a paucity of reliable data on suicide rates in South Asia. Reports are likely to diminish rather than exaggerate the magnitude of suicide rates. There is an urgent need to establish new, or evaluate existing, national suicide surveillance systems in the South Asian countries.
AB - Background: Globally, suicide is an important cause of mortality. In low- and middle income settings, it is difficult to find unequivocal data to establish suicide rates. The objective of this review is to synthesize the reporting of suicide incidence in six south Asian countries. Methods: We conducted a scoping review combining peer-reviewed studies (PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE) with in-country searches for grey literature in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The review included mapping reported suicide rates, quality appraisals of the studies, use of definitions of suicide and means of committing suicide. Results: In total, 114 studies and reports were included in the review, including 50 peer-reviewed publications. Reported suicide rates varied widely from 0.43/100,000 to 331.0/100,000. The average suicide rate across studies was found to be high compared to the world average, however many studies were of poor quality or not representative. The majority of studies failed to explicitly define suicide (84% of the published articles and 92% of the grey literature documents). Poisoning and hanging were consistently the most common methods of committing suicide on the sub-continent. Conclusions: The reported suicide rates in South Asia are high compared to the global average, but there is a paucity of reliable data on suicide rates in South Asia. Reports are likely to diminish rather than exaggerate the magnitude of suicide rates. There is an urgent need to establish new, or evaluate existing, national suicide surveillance systems in the South Asian countries.
KW - Review
KW - Scoping
KW - South Asia
KW - Suicide
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U2 - 10.1186/s12888-014-0358-9
DO - 10.1186/s12888-014-0358-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 25539951
AN - SCOPUS:84924170246
SN - 1471-244X
VL - 14
JO - BMC Psychiatry
JF - BMC Psychiatry
IS - 1
M1 - 358
ER -