Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14(4), 365; doi:10.3390/ijerph14040365
Socio-Economic Position and Suicidal Ideation in Men
1
Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia
2
Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia
3
Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 27 February 2017 / Revised: 28 March 2017 / Accepted: 29 March 2017 / Published: 31 March 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Understanding Suicide Risk to Preventing Suicide)
Abstract
People in low socio-economic positions are over-represented in suicide statistics and are at heightened risk for non-fatal suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Few studies have tried to tease out the relationship between individual-level and area-level socio-economic position, however. We used data from Ten to Men (the Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health) to investigate the relationship between individual-level and area-level socio-economic position and suicidal thinking in 12,090 men. We used a measure of unemployment/employment and occupational skill level as our individual-level indicator of socio-economic position. We used the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (a composite multidimensional construct created by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that combines information from a range of area-level variables, including the prevalence of unemployment and employment in low skilled occupations) as our area-level indicator. We assessed suicidal thinking using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). We found that even after controlling for common predictors of suicidal thinking; low individual-level and area-level socio-economic position heightened risk. Individual-level socio-economic position appeared to exert the greater influence of the two; however. There is an onus on policy makers and planners from within and outside the mental health sector to take individual- and area-level socio-economic position into account when they are developing strategic initiatives. View Full-TextKeywords:
socio-economic position; suicidal ideation; disadvantage
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Pirkis, J.; Currier, D.; Butterworth, P.; Milner, A.; Kavanagh, A.; Tibble, H.; Robinson, J.; Spittal, M.J. Socio-Economic Position and Suicidal Ideation in Men. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 365.
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