OBJECTIVE To explore the dynamic changes of suicidal ideation in college students and to provide evidence for the early prevention and intervention of suicidal ideation.
METHODS A cluster sampling of 5 372 college students from one university in Jiangsu was selected and followed up for four years 2016--2019 using the College Students Mental Health Screening Scale.
RESULTS The detection rates of suicidal ideation among college students in the first to four T1-T4 stages were 4.36% 8.99% 7.32% and 5.90% respectively showing decreasing after increasing trend. Stage T2 was the turning point and the trend of change was significantly different P<0.01. The detection rate of suicidal ideation of girls in T1 stage was significantly higher than that of boys χ2 = 10.55 P<0.01. In the T1-T2 stages the rate of suicidal idea detection among boys increased faster than that of girls and the rate of boys in T4 stage surpassed that of girls. The detection rate of suicidal ideation in T1-T4 stage of students in big cities was higher than that of students in small and medium-sized cities towns and rural areas and the difference in stage T4 was very significant χ2 = 32.11 P<0.01. The contingency table analysis found that the proportion of suicidal ideation at the same time in the two stages before and after was between 18.63%-35.04% P<0.01. There was no suicidal ideation in the previous stage and the proportion of suicidal ideation in the latter stage was between 4.48%-7.80% P<0.01. There were 11 participants who had suicidal ideation in the T1-T4 stages accounting for 0.20% of the total number and 4.70% of the suicidal ideation number.