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. 2022 Jul 13;22(1):465.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04090-z.

Magnitude and associated factors of suicidal behavior among postpartum mothers attending public health centers of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Selamawit Tilahun  1 , Berhanu Wordofa Giru  2 , Worknesh Snshaw  3 , Natnael Moges  4
Affiliations

Magnitude and associated factors of suicidal behavior among postpartum mothers attending public health centers of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Selamawit Tilahun et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: In low-income nations, suicidal conduct increases within the first year following delivery, ranging from 4 to 17.6%, with a three-fold cause of maternal death. Suicidal behavior was also reported to be 14% among postpartum women in Ethiopia.

Objective: To assess the magnitude and associated factors of suicidal behavior among postpartum mothers attending public health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2021.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in ten public health facilities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a total sample size of 615 women. The data were entered into Epi data 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 25 for statistical analysis. A logistic regression model with adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 95% confidence interval (CI) and p-value of ≤0.05 was used to identify predictors of the outcome variable.

Results: The magnitude of suicidal behavior among postnatal mothers attending public health centers in Addis Ababa was 41.46% with 95%CI (35.2-44.5%). Being mother's literate (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.42-0.97), verbal abuses (AOR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.38-3.44), history of rape (AOR = 3.03, 95% CI 1.14 -8.05), history of depression (AOR = 4.12, 95% CI 1.21-14.03), women's having sexually unfaithful husband (AOR = 1.42, 95% CI 1.14-6.23) and khat chewing (AOR = 8.48, 95% CI 2.52-28.50) were significantly associated with suicidal behavior.

Conclusion: The magnitude of suicidal behavior among postnatal mothers attending public health centers in Addis Ababa was 41.46% and it was found to be associated with being literate, rape, verbal abuse, having a history of depression, having a sexually unfaithful husband and chewing khat. As a result, women should be screened for suicidal behavior during antenatal and postnatal services for early detection and management.

Keywords: Associated factors; Ethiopia; Postpartum mothers; Suicidal behavior.

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Conflict of interest statement

The Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
ROC curve graph showing model discrimination power towards magnitude of suicidal behavior among post-partum mothers attending at Addis Ababa public health centers, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2021
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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