The development of a screening test for suicide risk in 10-to-15- year-old school children: a tool for people-centered public health

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Published: Sep 30, 2011
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5750/ijpcm.v1i3.116

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Ming-shun Chung
Section Chief of Community Psychiatry, Jianan Mental Hospital, Tainan and student of Community Medicine Research Center and Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan.
Hsien-jane Chiu
Director of Jianan Mental Hospital, Tainan and Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan.
Wen-jung Sun
Chief of Hunei District Public Health Center, Kaohsiung and attending staff of Family Medicine Department, Taipei City Hospital Zhongxing Branch, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chieh-nan Lin
Visiting Psychiatrist of General Psychiatry, Jianan Mental Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan.
Chien-cheng Kuo
Visiting Psychiatrist of Community Psychiatry, Jianan Mental Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan.
Wei-che Huang
Visiting Psychiatrist, Department of Psychiatry, Sin Lau Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan.
Ying-sheue Chen
Director of Psychiatry Department, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Hui-ping Cheng
Charge Nurse of Community Psychiatry, Jianan Mental Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan.
Pesus Chou
Professor of Community Medicine Research Center and Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan.

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to develop a Screening Test for Suicide Risk (STSR) in 10-15-year-old school children as a tool for people-centered public health.Methods: 607 students filled out the Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire (TDQ) for assessing suicide risk and multiple logistic regression analysis was used to extract items in the STSR. Psychiatrists then used the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Kid to verify the validity of the STSR.Results: Prevalence of positive risk for these students was 17.8%. Five items were extracted for the STSR: “I felt like crying”, “I felt blue and depressed”, “I had trouble sleeping”, “I felt upset” and “I felt miserable and even wanted to die”. Any three of the five yielded the best-balanced algorithm with sensitivity of 70.4%, specificity of 66.8%, positive predictive value of 31.5% and negative predictive value of 91.3%.Conclusion: We extracted five items from the TDQ to create the STSR, which is a rapid screening test for screening suicide risk by 10-to-15-year-old school children. It is a practical and reliable tool in a school-based practice for the preliminary screening of potentially suicidal adolescents.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 1 No. 3 (2011): September
Section
Regular Articles

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