To Study the Knowledge, Attitude, Practice Regarding Suicide, Among Doctors in A Tertiary Care Hospital

Introduction: Suicide represents a major public health problem worldwide. Improved knowledge and attitude about suicide may allow health professionals to better identify patients at risk and increase suicide prevention efforts. There is minimal literature available in the Indian context about this important issue and hence the present study was conducted. Methodology: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study included 171 doctors (completed MBBS) working at our institute. Semi structured questionnaire was used to record the socioeconomic factors of the participants. The 26-item literacy of suicide scale (LOSS) was used, to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of the doctors towards suicide. Results: Majority of the participants belonged to age group of 30-39 years (50.29%). Majority of participants had the LOSS score of 20. Higher literacy score above the mean was found in 105/171 (61.4%) participants. Discussion: Our study results were in concordance with other studies. Minor discordance may be attributed to diversities in socioeconomic, traditional and educational background. Conclusion: This study suggests that the doctors had creditable knowledge about the suicide literacy. Improving the awareness of suicide literacy, and the necessity to take prompt action towards its prevention are the need of the hour to reduce the suicidal burden.