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

自杀是世界范围内死亡的主要原因，尽管只占世界人口的26%，但近40%的死亡发生在东南亚的中低收入国家(LMIC)。贫困和教育等社会因素在自杀中起着重要作用&我的博士发现，在斯里兰卡，低社会经济地位(SEP)的衡量标准，如低教育水平、较少的物质资产和不安全的职业，增加了自杀和自杀未遂的风险。这些发现的政策含义尚不清楚。拟议的研究金工作有5个主要方面：i)在研究金期间向学术和非学术受众传播研究成果我的目标是通过撰写剩余的两个结果章节来进一步加强我的出版记录。这些章节中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)在使用多水平建模技术确定个人企图自杀风险方面是否重要。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，然后对他们进行了3-5年的跟踪，记录了自杀和自杀未遂的发生率。我还将通过社交媒体(如Twitter)，通过接受媒体采访和为一家全国性报纸(如科伦坡电讯报)撰写评论文章，来交流我的研究成果。为了做好准备，我计划参加在布里斯托尔举行的ESRC媒体培训课程&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、世界妇女研究会议上介绍我的发现，并在另一次地方会议上介绍我的发现。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该奖学金将包括对斯里兰卡的两次访问。第一次访问(两周)将包括访问斯里兰卡三所主要大学(科伦坡、佩拉迪亚和拉贾拉塔)的关键学者，讨论我的博士学位发现。我计划利用这次访问(通过现有的网络)将我自己介绍给主要的政府(如地区秘书、妇女和儿童事务部)和非政府组织(如自杀预防慈善机构、心理健康非政府组织)的代表。此外，在这次访问期间，我还将在佩拉迪亚大学开设一个统计学方面的短期课程，这将有助于加强我与该大学的现有关系。3)了解博士发现的政策影响第二次访问(两周)将包括与来自研究地区的代表、政府/非政府代表、记者和国际/国家学者举行研讨会。本次研讨会的目的是传播博士研究成果，并讨论潜在的政策影响。我的目标是利用这个研讨会来帮助确定与我的博士工作相关的研究的关键地方优先事项，并为未来的研究提案开发新的合作/支持。四)了解家庭/家庭结构与自杀行为之间的联系我的博士数据集不包括关于家庭成员关系的信息&因此，我无法确定某些家庭职位是否具有更高的自杀行为风险。例如，受教育程度低的影响在父亲身上可能比祖母身上更明显。我的博士学位资助了大约14,000个家庭的家庭关系收集工作。这些数据将在2016年底公布&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沟通我的发现和与媒体打交道的技能。我还计划接受定性研究方法和社会网络分析方面的专业培训

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