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Covariation of suicide and HIV in 186 countries: a spatial autoregressive and multiscale geographically weighted regression analyses

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Abstract

Aim

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death globally, inherently linked with mental health conditions. Existing studies have also found a significant association between suicide and chronic health conditions such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Although there have been enormous studies on these global health issues, knowledge about their co-existence is elusive. This paper examines the link between HIV and suicide in 186 countries using geospatial techniques and spatial statistics.

Subject and methods

We used country-level suicide and HIV data obtained from the United Nations Development Program database. The local bivariate spatial association technique was used to determine the covariation of HIV and suicide, while autoregressive models were used to estimate the unexplained country-level variables in the model. Due to evidence of spatial dependencies, we applied multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to examine the spatial variation in the predictor variables. The local bivariate spatial association technique was used to determine the covariation of HIV and suicide.

Results

Analysis indicated that HIV significantly covaried with suicide in regions of Africa and Europe. Our result suggests that HIV is a significant driver of suicide among females in sub-Saharan Africa while it drives suicide among males in many regions including the country of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Oceania, and Southeast Asia. MGWR indicated that HIV was negatively associated with suicide in the Americas and European countries, but positively associated with suicide in Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania.

Conclusion

There is a double burden of HIV and suicide in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, investment in both mental healthcare and access to antiretroviral drugs is essential in reducing suicide at both global and local levels.

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Notes

  1. MGWR was processed in a standalone GIS software package: mgwr version 2.1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA

    Ayodeji Emmanuel Iyanda & Yongmei Lu

  2. Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, 76203, USA

    Ngozi Chima-Adaralegbe

  3. Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Richard Adeleke

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  1. Ayodeji Emmanuel Iyanda
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  2. Ngozi Chima-Adaralegbe
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  3. Richard Adeleke
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  4. Yongmei Lu
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Correspondence to Ayodeji Emmanuel Iyanda.

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This study used publicly available panel data from the World Health Organization. Hence, it does not require ethical approval.

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Iyanda, A.E., Chima-Adaralegbe, N., Adeleke, R. et al. Covariation of suicide and HIV in 186 countries: a spatial autoregressive and multiscale geographically weighted regression analyses. J Public Health (Berl.) 30, 1545–1555 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01436-3

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