Incidence and Prevalence of Suicide Attempts in Primary Care in Spain

In recent decades, there has been an increase in the incidence of suicide attempts in different areas of Spain. The Primary Care Clinical Database (BDCAP) provides statistics on suicide attempts, allowing a state-wide representative incidence and prevalence analysis. Our goal is to analyse the incidence and prevalence rates of suicide attempts in Spain (2021) using data from the BDCAP and to estimate the incidence and prevalence rates of suicide attempts, we extracted the data of individuals who had been labelled with an International Classification in Primary Care code P77 (suicide/suicide attempts) according to different sociodemographic variables analysed in the BDCAP. As the denominator of the rates, we use the population receiving care. A total of 87,603 individuals (32,468 men and 55,134 women) with a code P77 (suicide/attempted suicide) were identified in the BDCAP in Spain, estimating a prevalence of 198.8 cases per 100,000 people treated in primary care (145.4 in men and 242.6 in women). A total 9701 events were identified as incident cases representing a rate of 44.7 cases per 100,000 people treated in primary care. The female: male sex ratio was 1.7 for both prevalence and incidence rates. Moreover, the highest risk associated with suicide attempts in Spain was observed in young migrant women, low economic status, the unemployed, and in cities of more than 500,000 inhabitants. Our results support the use of the BDCAP to analyse the magnitude of suicide attempts. It also provides valuable information on associated socioeconomic variables, which could potentially be useful in epidemiological surveillance.