Medically Serious Suicide Attempters With or Without Plan in Rural China

Although previous studies have discussed the risk factors of unplanned suicide behavior in several countries, the unplanned suicide attempt in China was not explored in a large sample. We aim to look into the characteristics of unplanned suicide attempters in China and compare them with those suicide attempters with plans. Subjects were 791 medically serious suicide attempters aged 15-54 years in rural China. The sixth item of Beck's Suicide Intent Scale was used to estimate the planned and unplanned suicide attempt. Logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the factors related to planned or unplanned suicide attempt. The results showed that the planned suicide attempts were associated with higher education, hopelessness, and previous suicide act. The unplanned suicide attempt tends to be suicide by pesticide and store pesticide at home. A ban of lethal pesticides may be a method for suicide prevention in rural China.