Unemployment and suicidal intents: results from cross-sectional study in Lithuania

Abstract

Background For many years, Lithuania was facing one of the highest joblessness and suicide mortality in the European Union. Just last few years, these two rates started to decrease, however suicides and unemployment still remain to be the problems, requiring special attention. The aim of this survey was to evaluate suicidal intentions among unemployed in Kaunas, the second largest city of Lithuania. Methods The data were collected in a cross-sectional study, in 2005. We received 429 filled-in questionnaires (response rate—53.6%) from unemployed persons, who were attending the Kaunas labour market office. Associations of reported suicide intents and other psychosocial health aspects were measured using univariated logistic regression analysis. For evaluation of the impact of explanatory variables on analyzed event (binary dependent variable), enter model of logistic regression was used. Risk was measured using the odds ratio (OR), calculating the 95% confidence intervals (CI). Long-term unemployed person was defined as one who is unemployed for 12 months or more. Results The results of this study showed that 23.8% of the respondents (21.4% of short-term and 26.7% of long-term, P > 0.05) unemployed had intentions to commit suicide. Such intentions ranged from occasional thoughts about suicide (17.5%) to suicide attempts (1.6%). Each tenth respondent started to think more about suicide after job loss. The female [...].