Socially Integrated Women Less Likely to Commit Suicide

the Psychiatry Advisor take:

Women who are more socially integrated are less likely to commit suicide than peers who are socially isolated.

Alexander C. Tsai, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and colleagues examined the association between social integration and suicide based on data from more than 72,000 nurses (part of the Nurses’ Health Study) who were asked about their social relationships starting in 1992 and ending in June 2010 or their death.

The degree of social integration was based on seven items that included marital status, the size of their social network, and participation in religious or social groups.

Socially isolated women who were less socially integrated were more likely to be employed full time, were less physically active, consumed more alcohol and caffeine, and were more likely to smoke than socially integrated women.

The risk of suicide was lowest among women in the highest and second-highest categories of social integration, the researchers reported in JAMA Psychiatry. Increasing or consistently high levels of social integration also were associated with a lower risk for suicide.

“Interventions aimed at strengthening existing social network structures, or creating new ones, may be valuable programmatic tools in the primary prevention of suicide,” the researchers concluded.