Epidemiology of suicide in the relief missions in the pre-hospital emergency system of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences during 2019-2021

Background: Mazandaran Province is one of the provinces with a high suicide rate. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the epidemiology of relief missions following suicide in the prehospital emergency system of  Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted from September 2019 to 2021 in the pre-hospital emergency department of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Statistical information related to the  missions carried out after suicide was extracted using the data contained in the emergency national mission form recorded in Asayar software. According to the questionnaire, demographic information including age, gender,  accident location, time, method of suicide, as well as mission outcome were extracted. To examine the results, frequency percentage, Mean±SD were used, and to examine the qualitative variables, the Chi-square test, and Fisher’s exact test were used. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 26 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). A significance level of 0.05 was considered. Results: In this study, 712(53.7%) were men and 615(46.3%) were women. The mean age of patients was 32.12±2.03 years. Fisher›s exact test revealed a statistically significant relationship between age groups and suicide  methods (P=0.02). The Chi-square test was used to investigate the relationship between the suicide method and gender. According to the results of this test, a statistically significant relationship was observed between gender and  suicide methods (P=0.00). The most common methods of suicide among clients were drug poisoning (32.1%), other cases (30.06%), and self-harm (20.6%), respectively. The highest frequency of suicide attempts occurred  between evening and night among 497 people (37.5%) in terms of accident time. Conclusion: Young and productive age groups are among the most vulnerable groups among suicides. Men died about five times more than women after committing suicide in a pre-hospital emergency room. According to the results, more planning is required regarding mental health self-care education in families and schools, implementation of psychological counseling, diagnosis, and prompt treatment in vulnerable groups.