The role of spirituality and religiosity on the suicidal ideation of medical students

Abstract

Background: There is solid evidence that spirituality and religiousness may reduce the suicidal ideation of individuals. However, studies are scarce on medical students. Aims: To investigate the relationship between spirituality, religiousness, and suicidal ideation among Brazilian medical students. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study including Brazilian medical students. Sociodemographic and health variables, suicidal ideation (item 9 of the Beck Depression Inventory – BDI), spiritual and religious Coping (Brief SRC), religiousness (Duke Religion Index), spiritual well-being – Meaning, Peace and Faith (FACIT SP-12), and depressive (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7) symptoms were assessed. Results: A total of 353 medical students were included, 62.0% presented significant depressive symptoms, 44.2% presented significant anxiety symptoms, and 14.2% presented suicidal ideation. In the adjusted Logistic Regression models, meaning ( OR = 0.90, p = .035) and faith ( OR = 0.91, p = .042) were associated with lower suicidal ideation, while negative spiritual and religious coping was associated with greater suicidal ideation ( OR = 1.08; p = .006). Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of suicidal ideation among Brazilian medical students. Spirituality and religiousness were associated with suicidal ideation in two different directions. These findings could help educators and health professionals to understand suicidal ideation among medical students, helping in the development of preventive strategies to mitigate such problem.

Correlation between religiosity and family functioning among secondary school students in high-risk residing areas and factors associated with substance use

“…The present study also shows there is a significant positive correlation between a chaotic family and substance use implying that an adolescent who had a more chaotic family would increase substance use. Our findings are consistent with previous research highlighting the importance of a healthy family dynamic and the parent-adolescent relationship in reflecting whole-family functioning, which can be protective of adolescent substance use [43][44][45][46][47][48].…”

“…Previous studies also show a significant association between substance use and religiosity, with strong religiosity being related to a reduced rate of substance use due to a conservative attitude against substance use and improved psychological well-being [9,[48][49][50]. However, our findings reveal that there is no association between religiosity and substance use, even though respondents had higher religiosity scores for the knowledge and practice component.…”

Association between religiosity/spirituality and substance use among homeless individuals

“…Studies indicate that RS may protect an individual against several adverse mental health outcomes (Lucchetti et al, 2021;Mosqueiro et al, 2021;Vitorino et al, 2018Vitorino et al, , 2023. Regarding substance use and abuse, RS are associated with a lower prevalence of alcohol, smoking, and other drug use in the general population (Giordano et al, 2015;Panati et al, 2020;Rezende-Pinto & Moreira-Almeida, 2023).…”