- For each death, indicate if the death should be classified as a suicide.
- What criteria (major and minor) were used in your determination of the above?
- Is this situation (suicide at a public mall) a public health matter?
- Would you consider preventive interventions for this situation? If so, what methods would you employ?
- Are deaths from suicides preventable?
- Identify biases in the reporting data in completed suicides.
- Comment on age, gender, time, and method of these suicides.
- What are possible explanations for the gender difference?
- Define “risk factor” for a health condition or disease.
- What risk factors have been identified for adolescent suicide?
- Provide an operational definition of “suicide attempt” and “suicidal ideation.”
- Using the raw numbers (in brackets), comment on age distribution of attempted suicide/suicide ideation cases (Figure 1). Are younger children in this study more likely to have only suicidal ideation (versus actual attempts?) Does this surprise you?
- List possible explanations for the peak of suicide reports in August through October 1999 (Figure 2).
- Comment on the gender distribution of attempted suicide/suicide ideation cases (Figure 4). How does this distribution differ from that described for the completed suicides?
- Describe the relationship between drug/alcohol abuse and suicide attempts/suicidal ideation (Figure 5). What are the shortcomings of the data in making conclusions about these factors?
- How does the distribution of methods used in the suicide attempts compare with the distribution of methods described for the completed suicides (Figure 6)?
- How do health care professionals judge how dangerous different methods of suicide are (Figures 6 and 7)?
- Please refer to Figure 8 showing patient disposition by attempt status. List the factors that are important in determining the appropriate follow-up of an adolescent presenting to an emergency department following a suicide attempt. How would you determine whether a patient should be hospitalized?
Calculate the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of this screening test.
- Sensitivity: ________
- Specificity: ________
- Positive Predictive Value: ________
- Negative Predictive Value: ________
- List the possible problems associated with this type of screening procedure in the school setting. Are there methods to overcome these limitatio
- Will you advise the local school board to adopt this screening method as a preventive intervention to reduce adolescent suicide in the entire middle and high school population in Onondaga County? (List the considerations in making this decision.)
- Do you advise applying this screening procedure in pilot or demonstration schools?
- How would you proceed to evaluate the effectiveness of this suicide screening method? With whom would you collaborate?
- Describe the study intervention that you would test (specifics of screening program).
- What outcomes would you select to measure?
- What types of study designs are most commonly used to determine the effectiveness of screening interventions?
- Frequent concerns facing researchers in the process of designing a study include statistical power and selection bias. How would you address these in your study?
- Taking all of the above factors into account, what study design would you select to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly adopted screening method to decrease the risk of adolescent suicide in your middle and high school population?
Biology · Studypool