Loading...
Suicide is a substantial public health issue. To evaluate the relation between social integration and suicide-related mortality, researchers used data from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which is a prospective cohort study of >34,000 male U.S. health professionals (age range, 40–75 at study enrollment in 1986). Social integration was measured using a 7-item questionnaire.
During 24 years of follow-up, 147 suicides occurred. Risk for suicide mortality decreased with increasing levels of social integration; the hazard ratio was 0.41 among those in the highest social-integration quartile relative to those in the lowest. Being married, having a large social network, and religious service attendance each had a significant protective ef…