Prevalence, Preventive Practices and Predictors of Suicide Ideation Amongst Youth in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC)

Background: Suicide has emerged as the second most common cause of mortality for youths between the ages of 10 and 24 years, with about 22% of young people considering suicide on a regular basis. It is vital for young people, their families, and the clinicians tasked with providing care to identify those who are most at risk of developing suicidal thoughts and feelings. Objective: This study was undertaken to explore the prevalence, preventive practices and predictors of suicide ideation among youth in AMAC. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in AMAC. A total 422 respondents were selected using Multistage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was administered to 422 respondents from the selected four (4) wards in AMAC, Gwarinpa, Garki, Karu and Nyanya. Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 20:0 was used, questionnaires were analyzed using percentage, frequency tables and chi-square analysis. Results: This study showed that 312 respondents (74.1%) out of 421 have never experienced suicide thoughts. Also, 362 (86.0%) of the respondents has never attempted suicide, 303 (72.0%) of the respondents don’t know someone with a suicide thought and 318 (75.5%) respondents haven’t previously noticed behavioral change in someone with suicide thoughts. Natural disaster was found to be a predictor of suicide as 270 (64.1%) of the respondents reported to have experienced it. However, bullying was not a significant predictor of suicide ideation as 346 (82.2%) of the respondents had never been bullied, 333 (79.1%) had never consumed alcohol Conclusion: Suicide ideation among respondents in this study is relatively low. This may be attributed to the fact that the study area has limited exposure to certain risk factors leading to suicide ideation.