Suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among adult Danes.
This study describes the prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempted suicide in a representative survey among adults in Denmark and gives the proportion of people reporting a suicide attempt that results in contact with the health care system. The data for the 1994 Danish national health interview survey were collected by personal interview and a self-administered questionnaire. A subsample of 1362 individuals participated in the part of the survey that addressed suicidal behaviour (64% of the random sample). The results show that 6.9% reported having had suicidal thoughts within the past year. Averaging across all age groups the overall prevalence of people reporting ever having made a suicide attempt was 3.4% and the one-year prevalence was 0.5%. Suicidal ideation was more prevalent among young people than among older people, whereas ever-attempted suicide showed no age gradient. Both suicidal ideation and ever-attempted suicide were more prevalent among economically inactive people (e.g. unemployed) and among unmarried or divorced people. We estimate that 50-60% of suicide attempts reported in a representative, national survey become known to the healthcare system.
Kjøller
M
M
Danish Institute for Clinical Epidemiology, National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen. mk@dike.dk
Helweg-Larsen
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003625:Data Collection; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data