Suicide is one of the leading causes of death and has steadily increased throughout the past 2 decades. 1 Religious affiliation may be associated with a lower risk for both suicide attempt and death through multiple mechanisms, including the promotion of social support, personal empowerment, healthy lifestyle, and commitment to religious life-preserving morals. 2 In the US, Muslim individuals represent a religious minority group who are vulnerable to religious discrimination but may access mental health services more infrequently than other groups. We compare the prevalence of suicide attempts among Muslim adults compared with adults of other faith communities in the US.
Methods | Participants completed the 2019 Institute for SocialPolicy and Understanding national community-based survey 3 conducted over landline, cell phone, and online by Social Science Research Solutions during January 2019. Muslim and Jewish participants were oversampled, and other religious groups were weighted to provide nationally representative and projectable estimates of the US adult population 18 years and older. The eMethods in the Supplement include a description of sample design, survey administration, and weighting procedures. The Stanford University institutional review board exempted the study from ethical review because it was an analysis of deidentified poll data.Participant demographics were collected using selfreported items. Participants were asked to self-identify their religion from the following categories: agnostic, atheist, Buddhist, Catholic, Christian, do not know, Hindu, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, no religion, Orthodox, Protestant, something else, or Unitarian (Universalist). Participants were also asked to self-identify their race and ethnicity using the following categories: African American, Arab, Asian/Chinese/ Japanese/Indian/Pakistani, Native American/American Indian/ Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, mixed, Hispanic, White, or other. Lifetime suicide attempt was assessed with a question adapted from the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale: "Have you ever tried to do anything to try to kill yourself or make yourself not alive anymore?" 4 Descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations were used to categorize and compare the frequency of the chosen study characteristics of participants. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed using Stata version 15 (StataCorp) to calculate unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios. Demographic factors were coded as categorical variables in the adjusted analyses. Individuals who refused to identify with a religious group or other demographic variable were coded as missing and excluded. Two-sided P values were statistically significant at .05. Analysis took place from March to December 2020.
