The prevalence of suicide, suicide attempts and associated demographics in malawi. a 10 months cross-sectional study

Background: Suicide is among the causes of mortality worldwide. The epidemiologic knowledge of suicidal behaviours in low-income countries like Malawi remains a challenge as limited studies have been done. The present study sought to add to the epidemiologic literature on prevalence of suicide, suicide attempts and associated demographics in Malawi by examining the demographics associated with completed suicide, and suicide attempts among Malawians. The total population of people in Malawi is 17.6 million.
Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative study was based on case reports of Malawians who completed suicide and attempted suicide. We did a secondary analysis of using a nationally-representative sample extracted from Malawi National Police (2019) available data sets, and Descriptive analyses were performed to check the prevalence and associations between suicide, suicide attempts and age, sex, occupation, district, city, and region, and observed trends of suicide and suicide attempts data. 133 case records were included in the study.
Results: The national prevalence of completed suicide and suicidal attempts based on police reported cases was 0.0008%. A total of 133 suicidal cases were reported in a 10 Months period.128 were males and 5 were females representing 96.2% and 3.8% respectively. Suicide; 125 completed suicide and 8 attempted suicide representing 94% and 6% respectively. A total of 125 people across the country completed suicide. Gender;120 male and 5 females committed suicide representing 96%and 4% respectively. Of note, all 8 suicide attempt cases that were reported were males representing 100%.Age;most of the people who completed suicide were aged between 21-35, representing 39.2%, followed by those aged between 36-50(24%), then those aged between Less than 20, representing17.6%, followed by those aged51-Above representing 16% and those who had unknown age had the lowest prevalence of 3.2%. Occupation; the records revealed most people who completed suicide had unknown occupation representing 88%, followed by those who were professionally employed; 3.8%, then those who were Farmers; 3.7%, then those who were Students and Businessmen; 2.3% and 2.1% respectively. District; Lilongwe rural had the highest prevalence of 19.5%, followed by Mzimba (18%), then Mchinji (8.3%) and the rest followed. However, districts like Nsanje, Balaka, Likoma, and Mulanje had not reported any completed suicide and attempted suicide cases. City; Lilongwe reported highest (48.4%), followed by Mzuzu (29.6%) and Blantyre (22.2%) while Zomba had not reported any suicide cases. Region; Central reported the highest (52.8%), followed by northern region (31.2%) and then southern region (16%). In residence Rural or Urban; most cases were reported from Rural (78.4%) and Urban (21.6%) respectively.
Conclusions: Completed suicide and suicide attempt cases are reported in Malawi and there is need for mitigating intervention measures. These findings have the potential to guide public health interventions geared toward suicide prevention in Malawi, Africa and other similar regions at large. The low prevalence of suicides cases in some districts of Malawi could be due to under reporting of cases.