Is religiosity a protective factor against attempted suicide: a cross-cultural case-control study.
This cross-cultural study investigates whether religiosity assessed in three dimensions has a protective effect against attempted suicide. Community controls (n = 5484) were more likely than suicide attempters (n = 2819) to report religious denomination in Estonia (OR = 0.5) and subjective religiosity in four countries: Brazil (OR = 0.2), Estonia (OR = 0.5), Islamic Republic of Iran (OR = 0.6), and Sri Lanka (OR = 0.4). In South Africa, the effect was exceptional both for religious denomination (OR = 5.9) and subjective religiosity (OR = 2.7). No effects were found in India and Vietnam. Organizational religiosity gave controversial results. In particular, subjective religiosity (considering him/herself as religious person) may serve as a protective factor against non-fatal suicidal behavior in some cultures.
Sisask
Merike
M
Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, Tallinn, Estonia. merike.sisask@neti.ee
Varnik
Airi
A
Kolves
Kairi
K
Bertolote
Jose M
JM
Bolhari
Jafar
J
Botega
Neury J
NJ
Fleischmann
Alexandra
A
Vijayakumar
Lakshmi
L
Wasserman
Danuta
D
D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004957:Estonia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D029181:Spirituality; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000453:epidemiology; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology