Racial/Ethnic Differences in Health Care Visits Made Before Suicide Attempt Across the United States

Abstract

Background Suicide is a public health concern, but little is known about the patterns of healthcare visits made before a suicide attempt, and whether those patterns differ by race/ethnicity. Objectives To examine racial/ethnic variation in the types of healthcare visits made before a suicide attempt, when those visits occur, and whether mental health or substance use diagnoses were documented. Research Design Retrospective, longitudinal study, 2009–2011. Participants 22,387 individuals who attempted suicide and were enrolled in the health plan across 10 health systems in the Mental Health Research Network. Measures Cumulative percentage of different types of healthcare visits made in the 52-weeks before a suicide attempt, by self-reported racial/ethnicity and diagnosis. Data were from the Virtual Data Warehouse at each site. Results Over 38% of individuals made any healthcare visit within the week before their suicide attempt and ~95% within the preceding year; these percentages varied across racial/ethnic groups (p<0.001). White individuals had the highest percentage of visits (>41%) within 1-week of suicide attempt. Asian Americans were the least likely to make visits within 52 weeks. Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders had proportionally the most inpatient and emergency visits before an attempt, but were least likely to have a recorded mental health or substance use diagnosis. Overall, visits were most common in primary care and outpatient general medical settings. Conclusions This study provides temporal evidence of racial/ethnic differences in healthcare visits made prior to suicide attempt. Healthcare systems can use this information to help focus the design and implementation of their suicide prevention initiatives.

The risk of depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempt in patients with psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis

“…In summary, patients with psoriasis, PsA or AS are at increased risk for depression. These patients commonly present to primary care clinics, and identifying these at‐risk patients in a medical setting presents potential opportunities for prevention of suicidal behaviour, especially in the PsA population which may be at greater risk. Future prospective studies are needed to determine whether treatments used to treat these three chronic diseases affect the risk for depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempt.…”

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“…6,22–24 Data were available for healthcare encounters, diagnoses, and demographics. All VDW data were organized using the same variables and data definitions across sites and are subject to regular quality verification.…”