Returnee’s Suicide Epidemiology among Internally Displaced Secondary School Students in Tikrit-Iraq

Introduction:One of the severe public health problems among adolescents and adults is suicide and suicidal behaviors. Suicide represent the 3 rd leading cause death among adolescents and young adults between the ages of 10-24, accounting for 12% of all reported adolescents deaths in this age. Depression and suicide in a adolescents are not studied well, in spite of its prevalence in Iraqi community. This research aims at studying Returnee’s Suicide Epidemiology Among Secondary School Students after Internal displacement in Tikrit-Iraq.

Subjects and Method:A cross sectional, descriptive study with analytic component was carried out on secondary schools students in Tikrit district. Questionnaire were presented to all students in the schools that day, in the classroom, depending on the help and cooperation of the school ’ s administration and teachers during spare time. A screening tool used was the Columbia Depression Scale (CDS), a paper-and-pencil yes/no questionnaire. The DISC can be presented to the adolescents and youths (Ages 11 and over). It consists of a 22 items that are rated as Yes and No scored as (1) & (0) respectively. The total score is calculated as together the score of each of the 22 items. If the result of calculation is 0-6, 7-11, 12-15, 16 and above that mean the chance of depression was very unlikely, moderately likely, likely and highly likely respectively (Appendix -2-A, B)⁽⁶⁰⁾ . Group (I) include unlikely and moderately likely considered as low risk for depression and Group (II) include likely and highly likely which considered as high risk for depression. A total of 269 students of returnees after internal displacement were selected randomly from secondary school students.

Results:High depression scores found in 26 (9.7%) while moderate scores found in 64 (23.8%) of Non IDPs of the study sample, which means that 33.5% of students were liable to have depression. High depression scores found in 6 (13.6%) of male Non IDPS students in comparison to 20 (8.9%) of females, while moderate scores found in 4 (9.1%) of males Non IDPs in comparison to 60 (26.7%) of females.

Conclusion:This study results found that 33.5% of students were more likely to have depression. Females more affected by depression and suicide.