Abstract:

Objective   To study the cognition and attitude towards suicide and the influencing factors among attempted suicides in rural area. Methods   Four hundred and nine cases occurred from Oct. 1, 2009 to Mar 31, 2011 were collected from 6 cites in Shandong Province. Questionnaires about attitude towards suicide were used. Results   The suicide attitude data of 386 cases were obtained successfully. The awareness rates on three items of suicide knowledge were 24.7%, 59.6% and 52.6%, respectively. The rates were influenced by family income and mental illnesses (P<0.05). About 14.5% cases took approving, acceptable or tolerant attitudes towards suicide, 51.6% cases took neutral or ambiguity attitudes and 33.9% cases took denial, opposed or discriminatory attitudes, while cases suffering mental illnesses tended to regard suicide as an acceptable or tolerant behavior. The majority of cases (81.3%) agreed that suicide was an important social problem, while cases with mental illnesses tended to disagree. Multinomial Logistic regression model analysis suggested that the attitudes towards suicide were significantly different among cases with different suicide intent. Conclusion   The cognitions and attitudes towards suicide vary among attempted suicides with different characteristics and different interventions should be taken.

Key words:  Attempted suicide; Attitudes towards suicide; Rural; Suicide intent