Citation

Babajani F, Salari N, Hosseinian-Far A, Abdoli N, Mosafer H, Heidarian P, Mohammadi M. Asian J. Psychiatry 2023; 91: e103878.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103878

PMID

38142521

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Over 700,000 people worldwide lose their lives through suicide every year. The prevalence of suicide has increased, especially in low- and middle-income countries such as many African countries. For every fatal suicidal attempt, there are approximately 20 other non-fatal suicide attempts within the population. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of attempts of suicides in the African continent through a systematic review and meta-analysis.

METHODS: To identify relevant sources, the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar repositories and databases were systematically searched without a lower time limit and until July 2023. The heterogeneity of the studies was checked with the I(2) index, and accordingly random effects model was adopted to perform the analysis. Data analysis was conducted within the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software (v.2).

RESULTS: In the review of 48 studies with a sample size of 244,701 people, the prevalence of suicide attempts in Africa was found to be 9.9% (95%CI: 8.5%-11.6%). With the increase in the year of study, the prevalence of suicide attempt in the African continent increases. Also, with the increase in the sample size, the prevalence of suicide attempts in Africa decreases. The suicide attempt prevalence among African men and woman slightly differed with 7.6% and 8.2%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Suicide attempt is an important public health concern in Africa. The findings of this study are important not only for African health policy making, but also to contribute to the accuracy of global estimates with respect to suicide attempts.

Language: en

Keywords

Self-harm; Suicide attempt; Social support; Suicide ideation; Mental health services; Suicidal behavior