Sexual orientation, suicide ideation and suicide attempt: A population-based study

The aim is to investigate associations between sexual orientation and experience of suicide thoughts and suicide attempts. The 2012 public health survey in Scania, southern Sweden, is a cross-sectional population-based study including 28,029 participants aged 18–80 with 51.7% participation. The associations between sexual orientation and experience of suicide thoughts and attempts were investigated in multiple logistic regressions. A 8.2% proportion of men and 11.3% of women reported suicide thoughts more than a year ago, and 4.0% of men 4.1% of women had experienced such thoughts during the past year. A 2.6% proportion of men and 4.6% of women reported suicide attempt more than a year ago, and 0.6% of men and 0.7% of women during the past year. In the age- and multiple adjusted models, bisexual and homosexual men and bisexual women had significantly higher odds ratios of suicide thoughts than heterosexual men and women. Bisexual and homosexual men and bisexual women had significantly higher odds ratios of suicide attempt than heterosexual men and women. After multiple adjustments these patterns largely remained. The results indicate that bisexual men and women and homosexual men have an increased risk of experience of suicide thoughts and suicide attempt.