Ideación suicida y soledad como predictores del deterioro de la salud mental

Abstract

According to WHO data, in all countries, mental disorders are very common, with approximately one in eight people in the world experiencing some type of mental disorder, due to the frequency of different mental disorders that vary according to gender and age, with depression and anxiety prevailing. The research aimed to analyze whether the feeling of suicidal ideation and loneliness can predict the deterioration of mental health. Materials and methods: The application of three instruments was carried out that would determine their influence on the mental health of the Ecuadorian population. It was a non-experimental quantitative crosssectional study and a sample consisting of 1,293 Ecuadorian subjects between 18 and 63 years old was used. The instruments were the GHQ General Health Questionnaire, the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and the Beck Suicidal Ideation Inventory. Results: The results obtained show that there is a correlation between the variable suicidal ideation and loneliness with deterioration in mental health, however, this relationship was weak except for the depression indicator. Suicidal ideation predicts mental health problems with an explanation of 19% of the changes in variance and represents a good fit as a predictor variable (F=277.76, p<.001). The loneliness variable indicates the prediction with the SM of 13% changes in the variance with a good fit in the producer variable (F=178.00, p<.001). Conclusion: the predictive capacity of loneliness and suicidal ideation in the deterioration of the mental health of Ecuadorians aged 18 to 65 years is found to be quite reduced, suggesting that other factors could be contributing more significantly to this phenomenon.