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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1492620

Prevalence and determinants of suicidal ideation among South African Health Sciences students at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

Provisionally accepted
Samhaa Seedat Samhaa Seedat 1Muhle Sengwayo Muhle Sengwayo 1Salma Gani Salma Gani 2,3Lesedi Mashego Lesedi Mashego 1Jordan Ochayon Jordan Ochayon 1Ashleigh Shepard Ashleigh Shepard 1Caleb Vergie Caleb Vergie 1Mxolisi Masango Mxolisi Masango 4Lerato Makuapane Lerato Makuapane 2Fezile Wagner Fezile Wagner 2Ryan G. Wagner Ryan G. Wagner 1,5*
  • 1 Unit of Undergraduate Medical Education, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 2 Analytics and Institutional Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 3 Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 4 Department of Institutional Planning (DIP), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
  • 5 MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, Agincourt; School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesbur, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Suicidal ideation is a growing concern worldwide, particularly among students. Health Science students face challenges relating to their coursework and clinical training. Mental distress and suicidal ideation in this group is likely to have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which many students were expected to continue their clinical training and even serve as first-line healthcare responders. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and key determinants of mental distress and suicidal ideation among students in the field of Health Sciences at a South African university. The findings reveal an adjusted prevalence of 22% for suicidal ideation. Mental distress in this population is a concern with 28% and 36.9% prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms reported, respectively. Furthermore, students who screened positive for depression and anxiety are 10 times more likely to report suicidal ideation (aOR=10.85, CI:7.93-14.82; p<0.001). This manuscript makes an important contribution to literature in young adult mental health by presenting the prevalence and determinants of suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 amongst Health Science student in an upper-middle income country -a context with limited research on suicidal ideation in this specific group.

    Keywords: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, investigation, Writing -original draft. Caleb Vergie: Conceptualization, Writing -original draft. Fezile Wagner: Conceptualization, Data curation, methodology, Writing -review & editing. Jordan Ochayon: Conceptualization

    Received: 07 Sep 2024; Accepted: 03 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Seedat, Sengwayo, Gani, Mashego, Ochayon, Shepard, Vergie, Masango, Makuapane, Wagner and Wagner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ryan G. Wagner, MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, Agincourt; School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesbur, South Africa

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.