Suicide Information Database-Wales (SID Cymru)

Research Themes

Project Overview

The Suicide Information Database-Wales (SID-Cymru) is exploring factors associated with suicide, a potentially preventable global public health issue.

Anonymously linking health and social care system data records for the same individual across different services and over time has enormous potential in suicide research.

Our database holds information on prior health, nature of previous contacts with services and wider social circumstances of all those who die by suicide (known and unknown to mental health services) in the population of Wales via the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.

SID-Cymru offers the opportunity to investigate the risk factors and trends for suicide, including:
• primary care diagnosis of depression;
• levels of treatment with antidepressants and trends in such treatment over time;
• rural and urban geography;
• educational attainment;
• levels of physical illness.

It also enables investigation into the settings and pathways of care where people are in contact with services in the year leading up to their suicide.

Project Outcomes
Collaborative / Industry Partners
Publications

Project Outcomes

SID Cymru is an important resource in facilitating research on suicide. The study has looked for opportunities for prevention and made recommendations to reduce the risk of suicide for the people of Wales and internationally. Recommendations to date include:

  • Data from SID-Cymru has informed ‘Talk to Me 2’, the suicide prevention strategy for Wales launched in June 2015. There is a particular focus on opportunities for prevention in primary care and emergency departments.
  • Data from SID-Cymru informed the ‘Thematic review of deaths of children and young people through probable suicide, 2006-2012’. The review made a number of recommendations to various agencies, including Welsh Government, such as minimum pricing for alcohol.
  • The team at Swansea University worked with the Samaritans on the adoption of the Samaritans ‘Media reporting guidelines for suicide’ in Wales.
  • Professors John and Gunnell (Bristol University) and the Samaritans met with Welsh media editors and journalists in 2012 to discuss and promote sensible media reporting of suicide.
  • Professors John and Dennis presented recommendations from the media reporting work to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide Prevention in 2014.

Other outcomes to date include:
• Informing ‘Talk to Me 2’, the suicide prevention strategy for Wales (2015);
• Informing the ‘Thematic review of deaths of children and young people through probable suicide, 2006-2012’;
• Working on the Samaritans’ ‘Media reporting guidelines for suicide’ in Wales;
• Joining with the Samaritans to meet journalists in 2012 to promote sensible media reporting of suicide;
• Presenting recommendations from the media reporting work to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide Prevention in 2014.

Collaborative / Industry Partners

Bristol University Professor David Gunnell
• Cardiff University Professor Jonathan Scourfield
• National Centre for Mental Health (NCMH)
• National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH): To link routinely collected data about all individuals in Wales who died by suicide between 2001 and 2015 with clinical data collected by the NCISH on patients in contact with mental health services within 12 months of their death.

Publications

John, A., Dennis, M., Kosnes, L., Gunnell, D., Scourfield, J., Ford, D. V., & Lloyd, K. (2014). Suicide Information Database-Cymru: a protocol for a population-based, routinely collected data linkage study to explore risks and patterns of healthcare contact prior to suicide to identify opportunities for intervention. BMJ open, 4(11), e006780. (link)

John, A. Midpoint review of the implementation of Talk to me 2: the Wales suicide and self-harm prevention action plan. (link)

Gorton, H. C., Webb, R. T., Carr, M. J., DelPozo-Banos, M., John, A., & Ashcroft, D. M. (2018). Risk of unnatural mortality in people with epilepsy. JAMA neurology. (link)

DelPozo-Banos, M., John, A., Petkov, N., Berridge, D. M., Southern, K., LLoyd, K., … & Travieso, C. M. (2018). Using Neural Networks with Routine Health Records to Identify Suicide Risk: Feasibility Study. JMIR Mental Health, 5(2), e10144. (link)

Bowden B, John A, Trefan L, Morgan J, Farewell D, Fone D (2018). Risk of suicide following an alcohol-related emergency hospital admission: An electronic cohort study of 2.8 million people. PLOS ONE 13(4), e0194772 – April 2018

Roberts S, John A, Kandalama U, Williams J, Lyons R, Lloyd K (2017). Suicide following acute admissions for physical illnesses across England and Wales. Psychological Medicine, 1-14. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291717001787

 

 

Research Centres

Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank

Adolescent Data Platform for Mental Health Research

Project Contact

To find out more about The Suicide Information Database-Wales project, please contact:

Prof. Ann John
a.john@swansea.ac.uk

HEALTHWISE WALES
Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transport Service
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