Understanding the association of low socioeconomic position with increased suicidal behaviour in Sri Lanka

自杀是全球死亡的主要原因，近40%的死亡发生在东南亚的低收入和中等收入国家（LMIC），尽管仅占世界人口的26%。贫困和教育等社会因素在自杀中起着重要作用，我的博士学位发现，低社会经济地位（SEP）的措施，如教育水平低，物质资产少和不安全的职业，增加了斯里兰卡自杀和自杀未遂的风险。这些发现的政策含义尚不清楚。拟议的奖学金工作有5个主要领域：i）向学术和非学术受众传播研究结果在奖学金期间，我的目标是通过撰写剩下的两个成果章节来进一步加强我的出版记录。这些章节的第一章涉及一项分析，该分析调查了背景因素（即家庭和社区环境）在使用多层次建模技术确定个人自杀未遂风险方面是否重要。第二章分析了一个队列数据集，该数据集记录了研究开始时个体的SEP状态，然后在3-5年的时间内对其进行随访，以记录自杀和自杀未遂的发生率。我还将通过社交媒体（例如Twitter）传达我的研究结果，接受媒体采访并为全国性报纸（即科隆博电讯报）撰写评论文章。为了做好准备，我计划参加在布里斯托的ESRC媒体培训课程和科学传播大师班。我还打算在国际自杀预防、社会科学和医学协会、世界妇女研究会议和一个额外的地方会议上介绍我的研究结果。我将利用这些会议与相关领域的其他研究人员建立联系。ii）建立网络，以发展影响机会和未来的研究合作奖学金将包括两次访问斯里兰卡。最初的访问（2周）将包括访问斯里兰卡3所主要大学（科隆博，Peradeniya和Rajarata）的主要学者，讨论我的博士研究结果。我计划利用这次访问（通过现有的网络）向主要的政府（如区秘书长、妇女和儿童事务部）和非政府（如预防自杀慈善机构、心理健康非政府组织）代表介绍我自己。此外，在这次访问期间，我还将在Peradeniya大学开设一个短期统计课程，这将有助于加强我与该大学的现有关系。第二次访问（2周）将涉及与研究领域的代表，政府/非政府代表，记者和国际/国家学者进行研讨会。本次研讨会的目的是传播博士研究结果并讨论潜在的政策影响。我的目标是利用这个研讨会，以获得帮助，确定与我的博士工作相关的研究的关键本地优先事项，并为未来的研究提案开发新的合作/支持。iv）了解家庭/家庭结构与自杀行为之间的关联我的博士数据集不包括有关家庭成员关系的信息，因此我无法确定某些家庭职位是否会增加自杀行为的风险。例如，受教育程度低的影响对父亲的影响可能比对祖母的影响更大。我的博士学位资助了大约14,000个家庭的家庭关系收集。这些数据将在2016年底之前提供，我希望利用奖学金来分析和发布这些信息。v）提高研究员的研究能力奖学金计划还将培养我向非学术受众传达我的研究结果的技能以及与媒体打交道。我还计划在定性研究方法和社会网络分析方面获得专门培训

Suicide is a major cause of mortality worldwide with nearly 40% of deaths occurring in low & middle income countries (LMIC) in South East Asia, despite only making up 26% of the world's population. Social factors such as poverty & education play an important role in suicide & my PhD found that measures of low socioeconomic position (SEP), such as low levels of education, fewer material assets & insecure occupations, increased the risk of suicide & attempted suicide in Sri Lanka. The policy implications of these findings are unclear. The proposed fellowship work has 5 main areas:i)Disseminating findings to academic & non-academic audiences During the fellowship I aim to further strengthen my publication track record by writing up the two remaining results chapters. The first of these chapters relates to an analysis which investigated whether contextual (i.e. household & community environment) factors were important in determining an individual's' risk of attempted suicide using multilevel modelling techniques. The second chapter analysed a cohort dataset which recorded the SEP status of individuals at the start of the study & then followed them up over a 3-5 year period to record incidences of suicide & attempted suicide. I will also communicate my research findings through social media (e.g. Twitter), by giving press interviews & writing an opinion piece for a national newspaper (i.e. Colombo Telegraph). In order to prepare for this I plan to attend the ESRC media training course & Science Communication Masterclass in Bristol. I also intend to present my findings at the International Association of Suicide Prevention, Social Science & Medicine, the World's Women Studies Conference & at an additional local conference. I will use these conferences to establish links with other researchers in related fields.ii)Building networks to develop impact opportunities & future research collaborationsThe fellowship will include two visits to Sri Lanka. The initial visit (2 weeks) will include visiting key academics in 3 of the main universities in Sri Lanka (Colombo, Peradeniya & Rajarata) to discuss the findings of my PhD. I plan to use this visit to introduce (via existing networks) myself to key governmental (e.g. District Secretaries, Ministry of Women & Child Affairs) & nongovernmental (e.g. Suicide prevention charity, mental health NGOs) representatives. In addition, during this visit I will also run a short course in statistics at the University of Peradeniya which will help strengthen my existing relationship with the University. iii)Understand the policy implications of PhD findingsThe second visit (2 weeks) will involve conducting a workshop with representatives from the study area, governmental/non-governmental representatives, journalists & international/national academics. The purpose of this workshop will be to disseminate PhD findings & discuss potential policy implications. I aim to utilise this workshop to get help identifying key local priorities for research linked to my PhD work & develop new collaborations/support for future research proposals. iv)Understand the association between family/household structure & suicidal behaviourMy PhD dataset did not include information about the relationships of household members & therefore I was unable to identify whether certain household positions were at elevated risk of suicidal behaviour. For example the impact of low levels of education may be more pronounced in fathers than grandmothers. My PhD funded the collection of household relationships for ~14,000 households. These data will be available by the end of 2016 & I wish to use the fellowship to analyse & publish this information.v)Improving the fellow's research capacityThe fellowship program will also develop my skills in communicating my findings to non-academic audiences & dealing with the media. I also plan to gain specialised training in qualitative research methods & social network analysis