Global COVID-19 outbreak and job loss have led to increase in suicidal thoughts, especially among young people, study finds

Nearly three times as many Canadians — nearly 8 per cent — have considered suicide in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic than in previous years, a new study by researchers at the University of Montreal suggests.

Drawing on an online survey of nearly 1,800 Canadian adults, the study also found that suicidal ideation was nearly twice as high (nearly 11%) among those in their 20s as it was among those aged 30 and over (6.6%).

The results are published this month in Scientific reports.

“It’s a sensitive subject,” acknowledges the article’s first author, Guillaume Dubé, who was a bachelor’s student in sociology at UdeM at the time of the study and is now preparing to begin a doctorate in epidemiology.

“Why has the pandemic led people to think about suicide? There are several reasons, with job loss due to the crisis being a major reason,” explains sociology professor Éric Lacourse, who co-led the study with psychology professor Roxane de la Sablonnière.

“And this is not surprising given the context of dramatic social change caused by COVID-19, which has affected not only society as a whole, but also individual behaviors,” said de la Sablonnière.

Members of UdeM’s Social Change, Adaptation and Well-Being Laboratory, she and Lacourse conducted the study with Dubé, assisted by colleagues from McGill University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ben-Ilan University in Israel.

A national survey

The study draws on data from a survey titled “COVID-19 Canada: The End of the World as We Know It?” conducted among 3,617 Canadians by the polling firm Delvinia between April and May 2021. For the study, data from 1,793 of these people were analyzed.

Suicidal ideation was found to be elevated during the first year of the pandemic, with an age-adjusted incidence rate of 7.6%, nearly three times the pre-pandemic annual rate of 2.7%, Dubé and colleagues found.

Simply being younger, combined with economic factors like job loss during the pandemic, makes people more likely to think about suicide than before, the study suggests.

Suicide is a major concern for young people. Overall, 21.7% of those in their 20s reported having considered suicide at some point in their lives, compared to 13.1% of those surveyed aged 30 or older.

“A vital indicator”

For the study, suicidal ideation “served as a key indicator for assessing levels of psychological distress among individuals in the Canadian population during the pandemic period,” Dubé and his co-authors noted in their article.

“Our study is consistent with existing scientific literature indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on younger generations,” they added, noting its “exceptional impact…on this demographic group.”

Additionally, “job loss during the pandemic did play a role in suicidal ideation among Canadians,” they said. However, even when controlling for this factor, “age remains a significant factor in this analysis.”

The authors conclude: “Given the current sociopolitical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, our findings highlight the imperative to prioritize the mental well-being of young adults in future public health strategies and policies.”