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Identifying the Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Suicidal Warning Signs Among University Students in the UAE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2023
Abstract
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Aims
One of the top causes of death and injury among adolescents and young adults is suicidal behaviour. Indeed, suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals aged between 15 and 24 years worldwide. Studies on the prevalence of suicide among university students in the UAE are scarce. Importantly, the extent of awareness and experience of suicidality among this group is still unknown. We aimed to ascertain the knowledge and attitudes towards suicidal warning signs and symptoms amongst university students in the UAE.
Methods
An online self-administered questionnaire platform was used to collect data from UAE university students in a quantitative cross-sectional study. In addition to demographics, experience regarding suicidal thoughts and behaviours, efficacy expectations, and outcome expectations and values were evaluated. Data were analysed using SPSS, setting a p-value of <0.05 as statistically significant.
Results
A total of 392 participants completed the questionnaire, 233 (59.4%) were males and 159 (40.6%) were females. Based on the knowledge scale, only 35.3% of total participants were identified as knowledgeable of the warning signs of suicide. Expectedly, out of the knowledgeable group, a vast majoring of 83.3% were medical students. When they were asked about what they would do if a friend told them that they are thinking about ending their life, many of the students chose to talk to their friends without getting anyone else's help. There was no statistically significant correlation between being educated regarding suicide and being knowledgeable of suicidal signs and symptoms (P = 0.1). Surprisingly, the degree course students enrolled in was not found to play a significant role in their level of confidence regarding suicidal signs and symptoms.
Conclusion
To our knowledge this is the first study to investigate awareness and attitudes about suicidal thoughts and behaviours among university students in the UAE. Knowledge regarding suicidal signs and symptoms among university students in the UAE is notably low. According to the results, self-reported education did not play a major role in appropriately managing suicidal signs and symptoms. The nature of the education provided to students needs to be further investigated to explore the gaps in the knowledge provided.
- Type
- Research
- Information
- BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S43 - S44
- Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Footnotes
Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.
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