LIFESPAN SIGNED

Project "LIFESPAN" data sheet

The following table provides information about the project.

 Partnership

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 Project objective

Suicide is a major public health concern and leading cause of death worldwide. Suicidal ideation and attempts, especially among youths, are of particular concern because of their associations with suicide, poor health, educational and employment outcomes. The World Health Organisation European Mental Health Action Plan has ranked suicide prevention among the highest priorities on the global public health agenda for 2020. While recognising the importance of immediate precipitating factors (unemployment, relationship problems), studies worldwide are showing that early-life events, occurring before or around birth, can influence later susceptibility to suicide. The LIFESPAN project adopts a life-course perspective to examine the early-life influences (birth order, parental age, family/sibling size, birth weight, birth length) on suicide, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in the general population. It comprises 3 complementary objectives: (1) to summarise available studies about the longitudinal relations between early-life influences and suicide mortality by applying meta-analysis, the statistical approach most informative for policymakers, allowing to go beyond the heterogeneity of existing studies; (2) to investigate the associations between early-life influences and suicidal ideation and attempts in adolescence and young adulthood with data from 3 longitudinal population-based cohorts (from Canada and France; up to 25 years follow-up); (3) to identify specific mediating pathways (targetable with new preventive interventions) linking early-life factors and suicide risk, using advances longitudinal mediation analysis techniques relying on growth curve modelling. By shedding new light on the role of early-life influence on suicidality, this project will contribute to the H2020 aim of “promoting healthy ageing and personalised health care [which] will enable to better understand the determinants of health, keep the population healthier, preserve quality of life”.

 Publications