Prevalence of suicidal risks in undergraduate students: are we facing a public health problem?

Objective: Admission to a university is a period of significant change and exposure to stressors that may raise emotional vulnerabilities and in some cases lead to suicide risk. The aim of the present study was identify the prevalence of behaviors of suicidal rich in undergraduate students of a municipal institution of higher education. Methods: A descriptive-exploratory cross-sectional study, carried out which 300 undergraduate students in the courses of a Higher Education Institution, Catanduva, Brazil. The instruments used was socio-demographic data questionnaire, social support scale, depression scale and suicide risk scale. Descriptive statistics and the Mann Whitney test with significance level of p <0.05 it was used. Results: The sample consisted of academics with a mean age of 24.2 years, female (72.5%) and no partner (84.6%). The variable depression and the variables of the social support scale showed to have a correlation with suicidal ideation. Alcoholic habits are relevant for suicidal ideation, pointing out that the higher the alcohol consumption rate, the greater the propensity for suicide. Of the participants, 33.4% had a suicide risk divided into: low (18.7%), moderate (7%), high (7.7%). Conclusions: The suicidal ideation reaches a large part of university students, and can be understood with a phenomenon already installed in the academic environment, and should be better explored in this context in order to obtain material to understand and consequently to combat what makes the university period a factor aggravating the risk of suicide.