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Association between sensory impairment and suicidal ideation and attempt: a cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative English household data
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  • Published on: 7 January 2022
    BMJ Open Rapid Response
    • Maitri Khurana, Assistant Psychologist University College London
    • Other Contributors:
      • Natalie Shoham, Clinical Research Fellow
      • Claudia Cooper, Professor of Psychiatry of Older Age
      • Alexandra Pitman, Clinical Associate Professor & Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist

    Thank you for your response to our published study.

    In response to your first comment, while we did not aim to test this specific hypothesis regarding a head-to-head comparison of dual versus single sensory impairment, a post hoc analysis prompted by this comment has found higher odds of suicidal thoughts and of suicide attempts in people with dual sensory impairments as compared to single sensory impairments.

    Odds of suicidal thoughts in people with dual sensory impairment compared to single sensory impairment (n=2,054): AOR= 1.72, (95% CI 1.06 – 2.78).
    Odds of suicide attempt in people with dual sensory impairment compared to single (n=2,025): AOR=1.95 (95% CI 0.70 – 5.43).

    These results suggest that those with dual sensory impairment may have higher odds of suicidal thoughts or attempt than those with a single impairment. However, in view of the large confidence intervals, we do agree that a larger (ideally longitudinal) dataset is required to test this further.

    In response to your second comment, we agree that poor mental health could indeed play a role in our main association between sensory impairment and suicidality. We commented in our paper that depression and anxiety are likely to lie on the causal pathway, and included the findings of a post hoc analysis in which we added CIS-R scores to final models and found that most of our estimates were attenuated and no longer significant. This hypothesis will need formal testing using m...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.
  • Published on: 30 November 2021
    RE: Association between sensory impairment and suicidal ideation and attempt

    Khurana et al. investigated the association of visual and hearing impairments with suicidal ideation and attempt (1). The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) (95% confidence intervals [CIs]) of patients with hearing impairments compared with people without impairments for suicidal ideation and attempt were 2.06 (1.17 to 2.73) and 3.12 (1.57 to 6.20), respectively. The significance was also found for visual impairments and co-occurring of hearing and visual impairments. I have a comment about their study.

    First, there was no increased risk of suicide attempt by dual sensory impairment (visual and hearing) compared with single sensory impairment (visual or hearing) in their study. I suppose that cause of suicide attempt may be complex and sensory impairment may be one of the risk factors for suicide attempt. In addition, many factors may relate to the process from suicide ideation to attempt. Anyway, a prospective study is indispensable to specify the preventive effect of sensory impairment on subsequent risk of suicidal attempt.

    Second, Simning et al. examined the association of auditory, vision, and dual sensory impairment with late-life depressive and anxiety symptoms in older adults (2). The adjusted ORs (95% CIs) of patients with dual sensory impairments compared with people without impairments for depression and anxiety were 2.70 (1.72 to 4.25) and 2.24 (1.46 to 3.42), respectively. In addition, there were increased risk of depression by dual sensory impairment (v...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.