1- Psychol Rep 1999 Aug;85(1):171-7
Religion and suicidal ideation in a sample of Latin American immigrants.
Hovey JD
Department of Psychology, University of Toledo
The present study explored the association of measures of religious activities and suicidal ideation in a sample of adult Latin American immigrants (145 women, 56 men). No relationship was found between religious affiliation and suicidal ideation. Self-perception of religiosity, influence of religion, and church attendance were significantly negatively associated with suicidal ideation. A multiple regression analysis showed that influence of religion was a significant predictor of suicidal ideation. The present findings lend empirical support to the notion that high religiosity may play a protective role against suicide.
2- J Epidemiol Community Health 1999 Apr;53(4):204-10
Suicide, religion, and socioeconomic conditions. An ecological study in 26 countries, 1990.
Neeleman J, Lewis G
Department of Social Psychiatry, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
STUDY OBJECTIVE: Relative risks are frequently assumed to be stable across populations but this may not apply in psychiatric epidemiology where sociocultural context may modify them. Such ecological effect modification will give curved associations between aggregated risk factor and outcome. This was examined in connection with the ecological association between suicide rates and an aggregate index of religiosity.
DESIGN: Ecological study of associations between suicide rates and an index of religiosity, adjusted for socioeconomic variation. The effect of stratification of the study sample according to levels of religiosity, was examined.
SETTING: 26 European and American countries.
SUBJECTS: Interview data from 37,688 people aggregated by country.
OUTCOME MEASURES: Age and sex specific (1986-1990) suicide rates.
MAIN RESULT: Adjusted for socioeconomic variation, negative associations of male suicide rates with religiosity were apparent in the 13 least religious countries only (test for interaction F (1, 25) = 5.6; p = 0.026). Associations between religiosity and female suicide rates did not vary across countries.
CONCLUSION: The bent ecological association was apparent only after adjustment for socioeconomic variation suggesting that, rather than confounding, ecological modification of individual level links between religion and male (but not female) suicide risk is the responsible mechanism. This concurs with micro-level findings suggesting that suicide acceptance depends not only on personal but also on contextual levels of religious belief, and that men are more sensitive to this phenomenon than women. In psychiatric epidemiology, relative risks vary with the exposure's prevalence. This has important implications for research and prevention.
3- Crisis 1998;19(2):78-86
Religious sanctions and rates of suicide worldwide.
Kelleher MJ, Chambers D, Corcoran P, Williamson E, Keeley HS
Mercy Hospital, South Infirmary, Cork, Ireland.
In order to understand differences in suicide rates between the countries affiliated to the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), the present paper investigates whether there is a relationship between the existence of religious sanctions and aggregate national suicide rates as reported to the World Health Organization. Through their participation in this study, 49 IASP national representatives reported on the existence of religious sanctions against suicide. It was discovered that countries with religious sanctions were less likely to return rates of suicide to the WHO. Comparative analysis revealed that the average reported rates for countries with sanctions are lower than those for countries without religious sanctions. The difference is particularly significant for females. Overall, then, at an aggregate level, it would appear that an inverse relationship does exist; however, while countries with religious sanctions against suicide return lower rates of suicide, as recorded by the WHO, recording and reporting procedures may be affected by the existence of sanctions, thus diminishing the reliability of reported rates. Furthermore, distinctions between rates among the different denominations seem to have been somewhat blurred, in particular between Catholics and Protestants, to the extent that in certain societies Catholics have a higher reported rate of suicide--despite the fact that, doctrinally, Catholicism is more severe in the condemnation of suicide than the majority of Protestant churches (with a few notable exceptions, such as the Orthodox Calvinists).
4- Int J Epidemiol 1998 Jun;27(3):466-72
Regional suicide rates in the Netherlands: does religion still play a role?
Neeleman J
Department of Social Psychiatry, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
BACKGROUND: This study examined the nature of ecological associations between 'religiousness' and suicide rates (1985-1994) in the 11 provinces in the Netherlands.
METHODS: Indices of religiousness, obtained from a nationwide survey, were used as aggregate predictors of provincial suicide rates in weighted linear regressions, and as individual-level predictors of suicide acceptance in logistic regressions. Sociodemographic confounding was controlled for.
RESULTS: Orthodox beliefs and religious affiliation
were the best predictors of lower suicide acceptance in individuals and of lower suicide rates in provinces. The ecological association was most pronounced in the least religious parts of the country giving rise to a curvilinear ecological regression line.
CONCLUSIONS: Curvilinear ecological regression lines arise when mean levels of exposure affect individual risk above and beyond personal exposure i.e. when there is ecological effect modification. This study demonstrates that such contextual effects, responsible for cross-level bias, apply to the association between suicide and religiousness. Variation, from context to context, of the effects of exposure to psychosocial risk or protective factors for outcomes such as suicide, has important implications for research and prevention.
5- Psychol Med 1997 Sep;27(5):1165-71
Tolerance of suicide, religion and suicide rates: an ecological and individual study in 19 Western countries.
Neeleman J, Halpern D, Leon D, Lewis G
Department of Social Psychiatry, State University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
BACKGROUND: Negative associations between religion and suicide, in individuals and countries, may be mediated by the degree to which suicide is tolerated.
METHODS: Linear regression was used to examine ecological associations between suicide tolerance, religion and suicide rates in 19 Western countries in 1989/90. Logistic regression was used to study associations between suicide tolerance and strength of religious belief in 28085 individuals in these countries. The concept of effect modifying function was used to examine whether the strength of the association between suicide tolerance and religious belief in individuals depended on the extent of religious belief in their country.
RESULTS: Higher female suicide rates were associated with lower aggregate levels of religious belief and, less strongly, religious attendance. These associations were mostly attributable to the association between higher tolerance of suicide and higher suicide rates. In the 28085 subjects suicide tolerance and the strength of religious belief were negatively associated even after adjustment for other religious and sociodemographic variables and general tolerance levels (odds ratios: men 0.74 (95% CI 0.58-0.94), women 0.72 (95% CI 0.60-0.86)). This negative individual-level association was more pronounced in more highly religious countries but this modifying effect of the religious context was apparent for men only.
CONCLUSIONS: Ecological associations between religious variables and suicide rates are stronger for women than men, stronger for measures of belief than observance and mediated by tolerance of suicide. In individuals, stronger religious beliefs are associated with lower tolerance of suicide. Personal religious beliefs and, for men, exposure to a religious environment, may protect against suicide by reducing its acceptability.
Il y avait d'autres articles (je n'ai épluché que le quart des 400 réponses que pubmed m'a envoyé à l'entrée "suicide+religion"), mais vu que pour l'instant ceux là semblent aller tous à peu près dans le même sens, je n'ai pas jugé utile de pousser plus loin les recherches.
Ma maîtrise de l'anglais est déficiante, et pour l'instant je n'ai fait que parcourir ces résumés d'articles, mais si j'ai bien compris le taux de suicide est moins élevé chez les croyants. Toutefois il semblerait qu'il faille en conclure que c'est à cause du fait que le suicide est moins bien accepté par les religions, et non parce que la foi rendrait heureux.
Qu'en pensent ceux ici qui s'y connaissent un peu mieux que moi en psychologie - ou qui maîtrisent mieux l'anglais ?
Gaël.
|