Eun-Kyung Kim

Department of Nursing, Suwon Science College, Hwaseong, Korea


Background: Suicide is the number one cause of youth death in Korea. Suicide rate differ by age groups. Suicide ideation provides useful information to understand and predict suicide. It is unclear whether the preva￾lence and risk factors of suicidal ideation of adolescents differ among age groups. This study aimed to compare the prevalence and risk factors of suicidal ideation by age groups among the adolescents in Korea.
Methods: This cross-sectional study used Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V-3, 2012). The participants were divided into three age groups: the first adolescents (9-14 years, n=628), middle adolescents (15-19 years, n=361), and latter adolescents (20-24 years, n=276) groups. Multiple logistic regression was used for data analysis.
Results: The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 15.1% of first adolescents, 16.4% of middle adolescents, and 15.6% of latter adolescents, respectively. There was no difference on prevalence of suicidal ideation by age groups. Among risk factors of suicidal ideation, sex (female) was risk factor in the first and latter adolescents, depression and stress were risk factors in all age adolescents.
Conclusions: Suicide prevention in adolescents should be done from the upper grades of elementary school and focus on strategies to reduce depression and stress according to adolescents characteristics. Also, female adolescents should not overlook the high risk of suicidal ideation.
Korean J Health Promot 2018;18(1):42-50

Keywords: Adolescent, Suicidal ideation, Risk factors, Age groups