Gender risk factors associated with parasuicide in the city of Lusaka

Suicide is perceived to be a major social problem in most countries nowadays.  The rate of suicide increased globally throughout the 1990s and much of the 2000s. It has been estimated by researchers that between eight and fourteen people per 100,000 kill themselves each year. With that, researchers encouragingly have witnessed an almost universal acceptance of the growing recognition of the role social, cultural as well as gender factors play in health and illness. Research on suicide focusing on sex has been considered as a gender based study. However, historically, the vast majority of research on suicidal behavior has focused on socio-demographic and clinical risk factors. These have been examined within a biomedical framework ignoring the gender aspect. It is because of this that this study’s main objective was to ascertain a gender perspective among individual with parasuicide in the city of Lusaka. Based on 46 participants of whom 28 were women and 18, men, the study used both quantitative and qualitative methods in the collection of data. This study established that the majority of the individuals with parasuicide were females, 60.9%, and males were 39.1%. Female rates of attempted suicide outnumbered male rates by a ratio two to one. This study also established that the rates of attempted suicide were highest in those between 20 and 30 years of age. The study further revealed that females (85.7%) between 15 and 30 years of age were more vulnerable to attempt suicide than their counterparts in this same age group. This study also found a clear correlation between gender and suicidal behavior in terms of educational attainment.