National Trends and Disparities in Suicidal Ideation, Attempts, and Health Care Utilization Among U.S. Adults

Recent trends in U.S. suicide rates underscore a need for research on the risk for suicidality. The authors aimed to estimate national trends in suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and health care utilization by using data from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Logistic regression was used to estimate the adjusted odds of past-year suicidal ideation and, among individuals with ideation, past-year suicide attempts, with separate interaction models estimating time trends by sex, age, and race-ethnicity. Time trends were further examined with logistic regression to estimate annual prevalence, overall and by sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical characteristics. Logistic regression was used to estimate past-year general and mental health care utilization among adults with suicidal ideation. Analyses were survey weighted. Overall, 4.3% (N=13,195) of adults (N=214,505) reported suicidal ideation, and 13.0% (N=2,009) of those with ideation reported suicide attempts. Increases in prevalence of suicidal ideation, from 4.0% in 2015 to 4.9% in 2019, were significantly higher for young adults ages 18-25 years (p=0.001) than for older adults. Decreases in prevalence of suicide attempts among White adults (by 32.9%) were offset by increases among adults reporting Black (by 48.0%) and multiracial or other (by 82.3%) race-ethnicity. Less than half of adults with suicidal ideation (47.8%) received past-year mental health care, with significantly lower receipt for nearly all minoritized racial-ethnic groups, compared with White adults. Widening racial-ethnic disparities in suicide attempts and lower mental health care utilization for minoritized groups underscore the importance of developing and implementing equity-focused, evidence-based suicide prevention strategies across health care settings.