Mental health service use in adults with suicidal ideation within a nationally representative sample of the Korean population

•Investigation on socioeconomic factors regarding use of mental health service (MHS).•Data of a nationally representative study of the Korean population were analyzed.•Adults with suicidal ideation within the previous year were included.•Socioeconomic factors, depressive mood, and suicidal attempt affect use of MHS.

BackgroundUse of mental health services (MHS) by people with suicidal ideation is critical in prevention of suicide, and identification of the factors that influence MHS use may assist in providing efficient interventions and treatments for suicidal individuals. Thus, we investigated the association between socioeconomic factors and use of MHS in people with suicidal ideation.MethodWe analyzed the data of the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010-2012, a nationally representative cross-sectional study of the Korean population. Among the 24,173 people from the national health survey, we investigated the socioeconomic, clinical, and health-related characteristics of 2616 participants aged 19 years and older with suicidal ideation within the previous year.ResultsIn the logistic regression analyses, after adjusting for potentially confounding factors, the odds ratio (OR) for nonuse of MHS was significant in the subjects aged 65 years or older (OR=4.90), aged 50-64 years (OR=2.11), with 10-12 years of education (OR=1.87), widowed (OR=2.75), with economic activity (OR=1.60), with an employment status of paid employee (OR=1.97), without depressive mood (OR=2.73), having not attempted suicide (OR=4.04), and with no reported problems in their usual activities (OR=2.17).LimitationsWe did not use standardized assessment tools to evaluate suicidal ideation and depressive mood.ConclusionsWe observed a significant influence of several socioeconomic factors, depressive mood, and suicide attempts on the MHS use of adults with suicidal ideation, based on a nationally representative sample of the Korean population.