Development and evaluation of a German suicide prevention website for men (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Men face a substantially higher risk of suicide. Effective suicide prevention strategies for men should specifically target gender-related risk factors, such as their lower likelihood of seeking professional help. OBJECTIVE The present study investigates the use and impact of a suicide prevention website for men using a mixed-methods approach, covering the period from March 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024. The website www.maenner-staerken.de is the first suicide prevention platform for men in Germany, with the primary aim of facilitating help-seeking behavior. The development of the platform was informed by interviews with men who had attempted suicide, as well as by existing evidence on effective communication strategies for engaging men at risk. METHODS Using the web analytics tool Matomo, data were collected on the number of visitors to the website and the subpages they accessed. In addition, 291 anonymous feedback forms were analysed regarding visitors’ perceptions of the website’s helpfulness and its potential to strengthen help-seeking behavior. A further component involved an online survey (n = 40) examining whether a short suicide prevention film featured on the website could increase the intention to seek help. RESULTS During the study period, the website recorded 29,279 visits. A majority of respondents reported via the feedback form (n = 291) that they found the website helpful (69.1%, n = 201) and believe it could encourage help-seeking behavior (59.8%). In the evaluation of the short film, a significant increase in participants’ intentions to seek help was observed in situations involving suicidal ideation, personal difficulties, and when considering professional support services. This effect was not observed with regard to informal sources of support, such as friends or family. CONCLUSIONS The data suggest that the website is being used and that a majority of visitors perceive it as fulfilling its primary aim - offering helpful pathways into support services. The evaluation of the short film further supports this conclusion. However, certain limitations must be acknowledged: since the data were collected in a field setting, the ability to draw firm conclusions about the characteristics or representativeness of the visitor sample is limited. In addition, the sample size for the short film evaluation was small. Nevertheless, the findings point to a clear need for gender-specific suicide prevention initiatives. They indicate promising directions for the development of effective, low-threshold measures, which merit further investigation in future research. CLINICALTRIAL Ethical approval was granted by the ethics committee of the Medical Faculty of Leipzig University (365/21-ek).