Correlates of suicide attempts in an open cohort of young men who have sex with men.
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.
Botnick
Michael R
MR
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
Heath
Katherine V
KV
Cornelisse
Peter G A
PG
Strathdee
Steffanie A
SA
Martindale
Stephen L
SL
Hogg
Robert S
RS
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