Economic stress in childhood and suicide thoughts and suicide attempts: a population-based study among adults

Objectives: To investigate associations between economic stress in childhood and suicide thoughts and attempts. Study design: The 2012 public health survey in Scania, Sweden, is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study including 28,029 participants, aged 18–80 years. Methods: Associations were analyzed in logistic regressions. Results: A 12.1% prevalence of men and 15.5% of women had ever experienced suicide thoughts, while 3.2% of men and 5.3% of women had experienced suicide attempt. Roughly 24% had experienced less severe and 8% severe economic problems in childhood. Significant associations between economic stress in childhood and suicide thoughts and attempts remained throughout the age-adjusted and multiple adjusted analyses. Conclusions: Economic stress in childhood is associated with self-reported suicide thoughts and suicide attempts in an adult general population.