Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Ghana , Accra, Ghana.
Department of Mental Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana , Accra, Ghana.
Glob Health Action. 2021 Jan 1;14(1):1839999. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2020.1839999.
The relationship between macro-level mental health system indicators and population suicide rates is an area of contention in the literature, necessitating an analysis of current cross-national data to document any new trend in the relationship.
This study investigated whether mental health system indicators are associated with national suicide rates.
Using an ecological study design and multivariate non-parametric robust regression models, data on suicide rates and mental health system indicators of 191 countries retrieved from WHOs 2017 Mental Health Atlas were compared.
Findings revealed that the average suicide mortality rate was significantly higher in high- income countries, relative to low-income countries. High-income countries are significantly more likely to have high number of mental health professionals, mental health policies and legislation, independent mental health authority and suicide prevention programs. These mental health system indicators demonstrated significant and positive association with suicide, suggesting that countries scoring high on these factors have higher odds of being categorized as high suicide risk countries.
The findings have several implications for policy and practice, including the need to make existing mental health systems very responsive to suicide prevention.
宏观心理健康系统指标与人口自杀率之间的关系是文献中的一个争议领域，因此需要分析当前的跨国数据，以记录这种关系的任何新趋势。
本研究旨在探讨心理健康系统指标是否与国家自杀率相关。
采用生态研究设计和多元非参数稳健回归模型，对来自世卫组织 2017 年心理健康地图集的 191 个国家的自杀率和心理健康系统指标数据进行了比较。
研究结果显示，高收入国家的平均自杀死亡率明显高于低收入国家。高收入国家拥有更多的心理健康专业人员、心理健康政策和法规、独立的心理健康机构以及自杀预防计划。这些心理健康系统指标与自杀存在显著正相关，这表明在这些因素上得分较高的国家更有可能被归类为高自杀风险国家。
这些发现对政策和实践具有重要意义，包括需要使现有的心理健康系统对预防自杀非常敏感。
