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Global Functioning and Suicide Among Chinese Rural Population Aged 15–34 Years: A Psychological Autopsy Case‐Control Study *
Author(s) -
Jia CunXian,
Zhang Jie
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.01978.x
Subject(s) - global assessment of functioning , suicide prevention , poison control , china , medicine , psychiatry , injury prevention , population , suicide methods , occupational safety and health , scale (ratio) , clinical psychology , psychology , demography , environmental health , geography , cartography , suicide rates , cognition , archaeology , sociology , pathology
As the relationship between global functioning and young suicide remains unclear in rural China, this study was aimed to explore the relationship between them. Data of 391 rural suicides and 416 controls, all aged 15–34 years in three provinces in China were used for this study. The Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale was adopted to assess global functioning of suicides and controls. The results showed that GAF score was stronger than mental illness in predicting suicide in China. Different correlates of GAF score were found between suicides and controls. Unsurprisingly, GAF score was significantly correlated with mental illness in both suicides and controls. Different characteristics were also found among three types of suicide which were classified using GAF score. Assessing global functioning is useful and GAF scale should be regularly used in suicide prevention practice.