Prevalence of suicidal ideation among university students, Afghanistan

Abstract

Suicidal ideation is a serious health problem all over the world. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of suicidal ideation among two public universities in Kabul city. A cross-sectional design was used in this study and for data collection, the Adult Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (ASIQ) is applied.  A total of 531 undergraduate students participated in this study with the mean age of 20.25±1.34 years. To analyze the collected data, descriptive statistics and independent t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. The current study indicated that the prevalence of suicidal ideation among university students was 24.7% in the past 30 days. This study also found that the students’ sex, age, living place, year of education, and monthly income of their parents had a significant effect on suicidal ideation. However, statistically, significant mean differences were not observed on respondents’ marital status, number of family members, field of study and university. Other studies need to be carried out on academic issues to identify specific factors associated with suicidal ideation.