Title
Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts among Adult Danes
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2000
Department
Psychology
Language
English
Publication Title
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
Abstract
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.
DOI
10.1177/140349480002800110
Recommended Citation
Kjøller, Mette, and Marie Helweg-Larsen. "Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts among Adult Danes." Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 28, no. 1 (2000): 54-61. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/140349480002800110
Comments
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