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Publication Date

11-7-2024

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Presentation: 6:38

Poster attached as supplemental file below

Abstract

Suicidal ideation (SI) is a significant public health concern among young adults in the United States. Psychological factors such as depression, anxiety and loneliness are identified as risk factors for SI. There is a gap in understanding the interactions between mental health, loneliness and SI. This study aimed at investigating the mediating effects of loneliness on the relationships between depression, anxiety, subjective well-being, eating disorder, and SI among Jefferson students. A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the Healthy Minds Survey (2022–2023) at Thomas Jefferson University. SAS was used for all the analyses. Mediation analyses were employed to determine the mediation effect of loneliness. The prevalence of SI in this sample was 9.8%, higher than pre-pandemic levels but lower than pandemic peaks. Loneliness partially mediated the relationships between depression, anxiety, subjective well-being, and eating disorders and SI. Notably, loneliness had a stronger mediating effect on the relationship between anxiety and SI compared to its effect on depression and SI (37% vs. 22%), suggesting that anxiety-related loneliness may contribute more heavily to SI risk than loneliness associated with depression. Our results indicate that loneliness is a potentially modifiable factor that can be addressed through social connection strategies, community support, and other accessible interventions. Limitations of our study include the cross-sectional design, limiting causal inference, other unmeasured confounders and low response rate of the survey. Future longitudinal studies are recommended to clarify causal pathways and strengthen intervention strategies targeting loneliness to mitigate SI risk.

Lay Summary

Suicidal ideation (SI) or having thoughts about killing oneself is now an urgent problem among young people in the United States. Loneliness, depression, and anxiety are closely associated with SI. However, there is limited knowledge about the loneliness role in the relationship between depression, anxiety, eating disorder and SI. This study aims to understand how loneliness influences the relationships between these factors and SI. We used data from a mental health survey conducted at Thomas Jefferson University from 2022 to 2023 – the Healthy Minds survey. According to our data analysis, we found about 1 out of 10 students in this sample experienced SI, which was higher than pre-pandemic levels but lower than the peak levels during the pandemic. Our findings showed that loneliness partly explained how depression, anxiety, subjective well-being, and eating disorders are connected to SI. Interestingly, loneliness had a greater effect in explaining the relationship between anxiety and SI than depression and SI. This suggests that anxiety-related loneliness might play a bigger role in increasing suicide risk than depression-related loneliness. These results indicate loneliness as a key mental health factor that can be targeted for intervention. Strategies to reduce loneliness, such as fostering social support networks, community-building programs, and accessible mental health resources, may be effective in reducing SI among young adults. Because of the study design, collection all data at once, we cannot conclude that depression or loneliness leads to SI. In the future, we could follow up individuals over a longer time to help us develop strategies to reduce SI by focusing directly on loneliness.

Additional Files
Wang_Xiaoke_poster.pptx (1197 kB)

Language

English

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