Asthma and allergy as risk factors for suicidal behavior among young adults

Perla A. Vargas, Elias Robles

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

An association between allergic disease, depression and suicidality has been reported. Objective: To explore the relationships between suicidality and asthma, allergy, internet addiction, stress, sleep quality, pain/discomfort, and depression, among emerging adults. Participants: 929 college students completed an online survey between October 2015 and April 2017. Methods: A cross-sectional study using multivariate analysis techniques was implemented. Results: Using structural equation modeling, we found that allergies and stress were directly related to pain/discomfort; pain/discomfort was associated to poor sleep, depression, and suicidality. Sleep quality was also affected by stress; while sleep, stress, pain/discomfort, and internet addiction were directly related to depression (all p <.05). Ultimately, four factors impacted suicidality: stress, pain/discomfort, depression, and, indirectly, sleep quality (all p <.05). Although allergy had some effects, these did not reach statistical significance (p <.09). Conclusion: Findings suggest that allergy might impact suicidality indirectly through increased pain/discomfort, poor sleep, and depression.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)97-112
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of American College Health
Volume67
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 17 2019

Keywords

  • Allergy
  • asthma
  • data modeling
  • depression
  • mechanism
  • path analytic technique
  • regression
  • suicide

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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