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Trauma

Category: Plenary Session 9

Quickshot Oral : Plenary Session 9

74 - PREDICTORS OF COMPLETED SUICIDES AMONG EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT VISITS FOR ATTEMPTED SUICIDES

Tuesday, February 14, 2023
11:45am – 12:00pm East Coast USA Time
Objectives: To determine the different factors associated with completed suicides among patients who present to the emergency department following attempted suicide in the US

Methods: We analyzed data on Emergency department (ED) visits for attempted suicides and self-inflicted injuries from the National Emergency Sample database (NEDS) from January 2010 to December 2017. The outcome of interest was completed suicide. In a multivariate analysis, we determined predictors of completed attempt of suicide. Factors included in our multivariate analysis were hospital region, sex, insurance, annual income, region of the country and mechanism of injury. We also accounted for common risk factors for suicides including mental health conditions (schizophrenia and other psychotic symptoms, anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar disorder), dementia and social risk factors such as alcohol and substance abuse.

Results: There were 979,383 ED visits for attempted suicides in the NEDS database during the study period. Among these patients, 10,301 (1.07%) died. Of these completed suicides, 73.86% were male. The median age for the completed suicide group was 43 years (interquartile range: 27-57 years) while the unsuccessful suicide attempt group had a median age of 30 years (interquartile range 20-44). The commonest mechanism of suicide attempt was poisoning (58.76%). Guns were the mechanism of attempted suicide in 1.29% of the patients. Gunshot was the most lethal mechanism accounting 48.33% of the successful suicides. After controlling for common risk factors for attempted suicide, significant predictors of completed suicide included increasing income, uninsured status, male and increasing age starting from 45 years of age. (See Table).

Conclusion: Among US patients presenting to the ED following attempted suicide, factors associated with suicide completion include increasing age (age > 45), male sex, higher income, gunshot injuries and uninsured status.