Mini Oral Australian Epidemiology Association ASM 2018

Young men's receptiveness to workplace suicide intervention (#104)

Tania King 1 , Jorgen Gullestrup 2 , Helen Lingard 3 , Anthony D LaMontagne 4 , Chris Lockwood 2 , Samuel B Harvey 5 , Brian Kelly 6 , Philip Batterham 7 , Allison Milner 1
  1. University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia
  2. MATES in Construction, , Spring Hill, , Queensland, Australia
  3. Construction Work Health and Safety Research @ RMIT, School of Property, Construction and Project Management,, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  4. Centre for Population Health Research, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  5. Black Dog Institute, Faculty of Medicine, , University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  6. School of Medicine and Public Health, , University of Newcastle, , Newcastle, , NSW, Australia
  7. Centre for Mental Health Research, Research School of Population Health, , Australian National University, , Canberra, , ACT, Australia

Background

Suicide is a leading cause of death among young men.  Health literacy, and help-seeking are  known to be poor within this group, but little is known about what interventions are most successful in improving understanding of suicide and mental illness among young men.

Aim

This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of a workplace program in shifting suicide beliefs and improving suicide and mental health literacy.

Methods

Pre- and post-training survey data of 20,125 respondents was obtained from a workplace training program database of evaluation results between 2016 and 2018.  Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were fitted to examine change in suicide beliefs, and predictive margins and their SEs were computed. Mean differences in belief change were obtained for the overall sample, and by age and gender.   

Results

Significant shifts in all beliefs except one were observed following training across all age-groups.  While pre-test scores on most beliefs were showed greater suicide literacy aong older respondents, there was some evidence that younger respondents showed greater desirable change in beliefs. Younger respondents showed greater propensity to regard the workplace, and the construction industry more broadly as having some responsibility to reduce suicide rates and address mental health.    

 

Conclusions

Results indicate that while suicide and health literacy may be lower among young men, they show great amenability to belief change.