TY - JOUR PY - 2017// TI - Suicidal behaviour in Indigenous compared to non-Indigenous males in urban and regional Australia: prevalence data suggest disparities increase across age groups JO - Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry A1 - Armstrong, Gregory A1 - Pirkis, Jane A1 - Arabena, Kerry A1 - Currier, Dianne A1 - Spittal, Matthew J. A1 - Jorm, Anthony F. SP - 1240 EP - 1248 VL - 51 IS - 12 N2 - OBJECTIVES: We compare the prevalence of suicidal thoughts and attempts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous males in urban and regional Australia, and examine the extent to which any disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous males varies across age groups.

METHODS: We used data from the baseline wave of The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health (Ten to Men), a large-scale cohort study of Australian males aged 10-55 years residing in urban and regional areas. Indigenous identification was determined through participants self-reporting as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or both. The survey collected data on suicidal thoughts in the preceding 2 weeks and lifetime suicide attempts.

RESULTS: A total of 432 participants (2.7%) identified as Indigenous and 15,425 as non-Indigenous (97.3%). Indigenous males were twice as likely as non-Indigenous males to report recent suicidal thoughts (17.6% vs 9.4%; odds ratio = 2.1, p < 0.001) and more than three times as likely to report a suicide attempt in their lifetime (17.0% vs 5.1%; odds ratio = 3.6; p < 0.001). The prevalence of recent suicidal thoughts did not differ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous males in younger age groups, but a significant gap emerged among men aged 30-39 years and was largest among men aged 40-55 years. Similarly, the prevalence of lifetime suicide attempts did not differ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous males in the 14- to 17-years age group, but a disparity emerged in the 18- to 24-years age group and was even larger among males aged 25 years and older.

CONCLUSION: Our paper presents unique data on suicidal thoughts and attempts among a broad age range of Indigenous and non-Indigenous males. The disparity in the prevalence of suicidal thoughts increased across age groups, which is in contrast to the large disparity between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous suicide rates in younger age groups.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0004-8674 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0004867417704059 ID - ref1 ER -