Exploring Suicide Risk and Protective Factors Among Medical School Applicants

Suicide is a serious but preventable public health problem. The university population is a vulnerable group for the development of emotional disorders, and medical school applicants in particular have higher levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation than students in other fields.

It is a cross-sectional, observational, and descriptive study where suicide risk, depression, anxiety, assertiveness, self-efficacy, emotional dysregulation, problem-solving, coping, and self-esteem in medical school applicants

This research contributes to identifying the risks and protective factors that mitigate the suicide risk of medical students, particularly in the Latin American context. The hypotheses were that 1) emotional disorders, anxiety and depression, and emotional dysregulation are positively correlated with the presence of suicide risk; 2) the socio-emotional capacities of self-esteem, self-efficacy, coping strategies, and problem-solving are protective factors against the development of suicide risk; and 3) there are significant differences between women and men in the presence of affective disorders and suicide risk.

A total of 245 students participated in this study; their average age was 18.23 (±0.83) years, and the majority (173, or 70.6%) were women. The prevalence was 18.4% for suicide risk, 49.0% for anxiety, and 19.2% for depression. As for socio-emotional skills, the prevalence rates were found to be 11.0% for low assertiveness, 13.9% for low self-esteem, 11.4% for ineffectiveness in solving problems, and 40.5% for emotional dysregulation.