Evaluation of the Suicide Attempt Surveillance System in Santiago de Cali, Colombia, 2016–2019

Abstract

Introduction

Suicidal behaviors are one of the top ten causes of death worldwide. It is recommended to prioritize the surveillance of suicide attempts, as this is a useful risk factor in the short-term prediction of suicide. In Colombia, its surveillance was implemented in 2016. The study evaluated the performance of the suicide attempt surveillance system in Cali, Colombia, in the period 2016–2019.

Material and methods

The attributes of timeliness, data quality and representativeness were evaluated according to the CDC Guidelines for Violence and Injury Surveillance, in addition to describing patterns of occurrence through time series.

Results

The median timeliness of notification was 0 days (RIQ = 3). The variables exposure to violence (73.5%), depressive disorder (49.6%) and personality disorder (44.1%) had the highest percentages of missing data. The system identifies priority populations similar to other sources of information, such as young people between 15 and 24 years of age (28.1%), women (64.8%), students (35.5%) and the single population (69.6%); triggering factors such as relationship problems (35.6%), economic problems (13.7%) and serious illness (7%); and mechanisms used such as intoxication (61.6%), short stabbing weapon (27.6%) and hanging (5.3%). The system predicts 22 cases (95% CI = 21.6–22.3) per week of attempted suicide in the short term.

Conclusions

The system meets the attributes of quality, timeliness and representativeness. It also allows the identification of an expected threshold of cases that needs to be validated to detect outbreak situations. This study contributes to the knowledge and prevention of the suicidal phenomenon.