Prevalence and Correlate of High Suicidal Ideation among People Living With HIV/Aids in Osogbo, South-Western Nigeria

Persistent suicidal thoughts with additional feelings of hopelessness and intent to die are very serious and must be assessed promptly and carefully among people living with HIV/AIDS The prevalence and the correlate of suicidal ideation and attempt were assessed among people living with HIV/AIDS in Osogbo Nigeria. Three hundred and twenty-six people living with HIV/AIDS attending the Institute of Human Virology of Nigeria, Lautech Teaching Hospital Osogbo were recruited into the study. Each respondent filled the socio-demographic questionnaire, suicidal screening scale. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software (version 21) was used for the analysis. The prevalence of high suicidal ideation among the respondent is 12.6%. The study revealed that the risk of high suicidal ideation was 0.21 fold less among those between the ages of 41 to 60 compared with those above 60 years (B=-1.1519, P=0.010). In addition, the risk of high suicidal ideation was52.6 fold increase among the students (B=3.963, P = 0.001), 5.85fold increase among civil servants (B=1.702, P = 0.039 and 11.37 fold increase among artisan compared with the traders along. (B=2.427, P = 0.005).Those with psychiatric morbidity had 3.44 fold increase high suicidal ideation compared with those without psychiatric morbidity (B= 1.237, P value=0.006). The results of this study show that patients with HIV/AIDS receiving follow-up care experience considerable undetected psychiatric morbidity and suicidal ideation. Collaborative effort must be targeted towards the provision of a welfare scheme and reduction of comorbidity associate with HIV infection.