Resumo

AMEZQUITA MEDINA, María Eugenia; GONZALEZ PEREZ, Rosa Elena  e  ZULUAGA MEJIA, Diego. PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION AND SUICIDAL THOUGHTS IN STUDENTS FROM 8TH TO 11TH GRADE IN EIGHT PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS IN MANIZALES. Hacia promoc. Salud [online]. 2008, vol.13, n.1, pp.143-153. ISSN 0121-7577.

In recent years, administrative and assistance health institutions, have become concerned with the increase of suicidal behavior in the school population of the city of Manizales. According to data of the Epidemic Bulletin, Manizales 2001, in the period between 1996 and 1999, 93 people committed suicide, of which 78 were men and 15 women. The highest number of suicides in absolute terms was seen in the age group 15-24 (11 youths per each 100.000 inhabitants). Since depression is the main risk factor for suicide, it was chosen as the problem object of this study. The research focused on theoretical topics such as: health, biological principles, psychological and social changes in the teenage years, depression aspects in teenagers, epidemiology, suicidal behavior categories, meaning of suicide in teenagers, alert signs, risk factors, treatment and prevention. The general objective of the study was to determine the prevalence, depression grade and suicidal tendencies in 1298 students from the 8th to 11th grade of eight public schools of Manizales during 2000, 2001, first semester of 2002, and 2003. The study was an empiric-analytic research, in which a descriptive relational design was used. The dependent variables were depression and suicidal tendencies, and the independent variables included: age, sex, educational level, school and commune. An association was made among these two groups of variables. For gathering the data, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used. The sample was represented by the total population of the mentioned school grades, 1298 students of both sexes, between the ages of 9 and 20. The results showed that 38.8% presented a global clinical depression, the highest depression levels corresponded to the category of slight depression (21.3%); while 45% presented suicidal tendencies. The depression associations that were statistically significant include: schools 2 and 7; females and age groups between 12-14 (highly significant), 15-17 (significant) and 18-20. The educational institutions that showed a higher suicidal tendency were 8 (11.94%) and 1 (8.78%). The highest percentages of suicidal behavior were found in the age group 15-17, in females, and in students from communes 5 and 9. Regarding the suicidal tendency variable, the associations were not statistically significant.

Palavras-chave : Depression; suicide; teenagers; prevalence; students.

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