title: Correlates of suicide attempts in an open cohort of young men who have sex with men.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate baseline correlates of attempted suicide in a large cohort of young gay and bisexual men.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed annual questionnaires asking demographic information, sexual behaviours, history of forced and paid sex, comfort with sexual orientation, use of illicit drugs, and validated measures of depression, social support, alcohol dependency, self-esteem and suicide ideation and attempts. Contingency table analysis and step-wise logistic regression were used to identify potential predictors of self-reported suicide attempts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 345 gay and bisexual men eligible for this cross-sectional analysis, 150 (43.5%) reported that they had ever considered suicide and 67 (19.4%) that they had attempted suicide at least once. After adjustment for multiple explanatory variables, the use of nitrite inhalants (poppers) (AOR = 2.37; 95% CI 1.30, 4.33), social support scores below the 75th percentile of all scores (AOR = 2.19; 95% CI 1.18, 4.09) and low or moderate self-esteem (AOR = 3.73; 95% CI 2.03, 6.86) were independently associated with elevated risk of attempted suicide.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data indicate that men in this analysis who ideate or attempt suicide earlier in life are more likely to report lower social support and self-esteem, and high popper use.
authors.affiliation: BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Botnick
authors.forename: Katherine V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.forename: Peter G A
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Cornelisse
authors.forename: Steffanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Strathdee
authors.forename: Stephen L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Martindale
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Hogg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001727:Bisexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D002170:Canada; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012944:Social Support; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires