Suicidal Ideation: the Role of Economic and Aboriginal Cultural Status After Multivariate Adjustment

This study examined if Aboriginal cultural status is independently associated with lifetime suicide ideation in the Saskatoon Health Region after controlling for other covariates, particularly income status. 5948 participants completed a survey with a response rate of 81.1%. The prevalence of lifetime suicide ideation was 11.9%. After stratification, it was found that high-income Aboriginal people have similar low levels of suicide ideation when compared with high-income Caucasian people. After full multivariate adjustment, Aboriginal cultural status has a substantially reduced association with lifetime suicide ideation. The odds of lifetime suicide ideation for Aboriginal people reduced from 3.28 to 1.99 after multivariate adjustment for household income alone. (17 refs.)