ISSN: 2578-5095
Authors: Amankwah K , Douri JB , Christian AA , Agnes P , Rosemary A , Enge Reubean AA and Apedani DB
Introduction: Incidents of suicide cases and its related episodes increases in tertiary institutions and attract extreme mass media attention with a high proportion of suicide among college students. Globally, over 800 000 people die of suicide every year and it is the second leading cause of death in 15−29-year-olds. This study assessed depression and suicidal tendencies among KNUST undergraduate students. Methods: This study employed a cross sectional study, Likert scaled questionnaires on self-esteem, depression, and suicidal behaviour. And also closed ended questionnaires on availability of suicide preventive services on campus. Results: The study found out that majority of the students had high level of self-esteem (84.20%). Also, the prevalence of depression among students in this study was 25.15% for major depression episode and 66.34% for people who at mild depression. Again, it was revealed in this study that a prevalence of 26.37% suicidal tendency and its related behaviour exist among KNUST undergraduate students. Depression and Suicidal tendency demonstrated a weak and insignificant correlation of r= 0.18, p<0.001), that high self-esteem becomes protective against individual suicidal tendency. Depression score also contributes to an increase in suicidality by 0.18 times with an increase in depression rate, this relationship was statistically insignificant (0.18; 95% CI = 0.15, 0.19; p<0.001). Conclusion: Majority of the students have no or little idea about the availability of suicide supportive services. More education programmes and awareness creation should be regular to increase students’ knowledge on the availability of suicide supportive services such as suicide hotlines/helplines on campus.
Keywords: Depression; Suicidal Behaviour; Tendency; Health Statistics; Mental Health
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