Frequency of Thoughts and Planning for Suicide Attempt in Paramedical Students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in 2019: A Cross-Sectional Study

Suicidal ideation is the tendency of a person to die that is highly prevalent among students and due to the important role of paramedical students as future treatment staff, this study was conducted to investigate the frequency of thoughts and planning for suicide attempt among paramedical students in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences.

In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 209 paramedical students participated from entrance 2015 to 2018 by census. For collecting data, a questionnaire for demographic information and Beck standard questionnaire for suicidal ideation were used in from of self-reporting. Data were analyzed using chi square, one- way ANOVA and logistic regression.

In this study, 209 paramedical students participated, of whom 14/4% (n=30) had suicidal ideation, 3.3% (n=7) were ready to carry out suicide. The prevalence of suicidal ideation was higher in male students than female students (p=0.886), and higher in single students than married ones (p=0.166), but no significant relationship was observed between them. There was a significant relationship between suicidal ideation and history of love failure (p= 0.301), history of non-scoring in courses (p<0.001), course failure (p<0.001), smoking (p<0.001), and field satisfaction (p<0.001).

The results of this study showed that the prevalence of suicidal ideation among paramedical students is relatively high. Therefore, the results of the study highlighted that  necessary planning should be done to prevent suicidal ideation among students.