Research Article
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Abstract
Research suggests that sexual minority individuals are at increased risk of suicide compared with the general population. As technology continues to develop in sophistication and accessibility, a growing number of research and therapeutic interventions utilize web-based assessments. To facilitate future research on assessing and responding to suicidal thoughts and behaviors, we describe the implementation of procedures for doing so in the context of a limited-interaction, remote cohort study. We describe factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors among sexual minority men (SMM) that can guide risk/benefit assessments in future studies. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample in terms of self-injury/suicidality. Bivariate χ2 tests were conducted to explore differences in these indicators by age, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, health insurance, region, education, and self-ranked socioeconomic status. Additionally, logistic regressions were used to examine associations between demographic characteristics, various psychosocial syndemic factors, and the four measures of self-injury/suicidality. In addition, we describe the experiences completing the suicidality follow-up protocol within the study. We conducted a nationwide study of 10,607 participants and found that 27.8% had a history of self-injury, 5.6% in the past year, 21.0% had attempted suicide, 18.2% experienced suicidal ideation, and 9.4% had thoughts of killing themselves. Logistic regressions revealed that depression, everyday discrimination based on sexual orientation, childhood sexual assault, and intimate partner violence were the strongest predictors of self-injury and suicidality. Study participants experienced high rates of self-injury and suicidality. Effective protocols can be developed to assess and respond to suicide risk in web-based SMM studies.
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