A Community-based Depression Screening Intervention for Middle-aged Suicide

Aomori University of Health and Welfare

Status: Completed

Conditions: Suicide

Treatments: Behavioral: Suicide prevention program as usual; Behavioral: Multi-level suicide prevention programs

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02468466

KAKENHI #70404829

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a community-based depression-screening program for suicide prevention among middle-aged adults, the investigators conducted a quasi-experimental intervention study, using a parallel cluster design with communities at municipal level as the unit of allocation and individuals as the unit of analysis.

Full description

Suicide is a major cause of premature death, particularly among middle-aged adults, in the majority of Western and Asian countries. A strong association of suicide and depression often indicates the necessity of a high-risk approach for suicide prevention. Improvements in identification and treatment can lead to better depression outcomes and suicide prevention. The investigators hypothesize that a 4-year community-based intervention, consisting of universal depression screening and subsequent care support in the target areas and health education programs, would result in reduced suicide rates among the middle-aged adult population in areas with a high suicide rate.

Enrollment: 89,700 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 36 to 64 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• A municipal area located in the following 4 Aomori Second Medical Zones: Hachinohe, Kamitosan, Aomori, and Tsugaru.
• A municipal area with the higher suicide rate than the prefectural average.
• A municipal area having the sufficient and coverable size to serve the intervention (population 10,000-99,999).

Exclusion criteria

• A municipal area receiving further intervention including a depression screening for middle-aged adults.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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89,700 participants in 2 patient groups

Multi-level suicide prevention programs

Experimental group

Description:

The study team, including staff members from the intervention municipalities, provided each municipality with a standardized form of the work plan used in our study. The intervention municipality autonomously conducted the intervention program during the implementation period.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Multi-level suicide prevention programs

Community intervention as usual

Active Comparator group

Description:

Suicide prevention program as usual

Treatment:

Behavioral: Suicide prevention program as usual