Psychological distress associated with suicidal ideation and attempt of people with glaucoma at tertiary eye care clinic, gondar city, Ethiopia

Abstract Background Suicide is an act of intentionally ending one’s own life with implicit or explicit evidence. The studies done from five countries in Africa (including; Ethiopia) revealed that the pooled prevalence of suicidal ideation was 21.7% and suicidal attempt was 11.06%, whereas, suicidal ideation and attempt were higher in Ethiopia 22.7% and 16.97%, respectively. Suicidal ideation and attempt were associated with various psychological, social and medical conditions. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempt among adult people with glaucoma and its contributing factors in Gondar city, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 422 glaucoma patients at Tertiary Eye Care Clinic, University of Gondar Comprehensive and Specialized Hospital. The sample size was calculated by using a single population proportion formula and the sample selected by using systematic random sampling method. Suicidal ideation and attempt assessed using the suicidality module of the World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative version of the World Health Organization’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). The data was edited, cleaned, coded and entered into Epi-info version 7 and analyzed by using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) 25 version. Binary logistic regression was conducted to identify factors associated with suicidal ideation and attempt. The p-value less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant. Results The overall prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempt were 6.4% with 95% CI (4.3–9.2%) and 2.4% with 95% CI (1.1–4.3%), respectively. In multivariate analysis; severe psychological distress, moderate psychological distress, mild psychological distress, and current substance use were identified as a risk factor for suicidal ideation, whereas, lived alone, co-morbid chronic medical disease/diseases and ever substance use were identified as a risk factor for suicidal attempt. Conclusion Based on our finding the prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempt was not contemptible. The study also identified factors associated with suicidal ideation and attempt; psychological distress and current substance use were significantly associated with suicidal ideation, whereas living alone, co-morbid chronic disease/diseases and ever substance use were significantly associated with suicidal attempt. Our finding lead, they should be screened and managed in eye care institution.