Quarshie EN, Waterman MG, House AO. Prevalence of self-harm among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adolescents: a comparison of personal and social adversity with a heterosexual sample in Ghana. BMC Res Notes. 2020;13(1):271. Published 2020 Jun 3. doi:10.1186/s13104-020-05111-4
Abstract
Objectives: We sought to estimate the prevalence of self-reported self-harm among adolescents identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) in Ghana, and compare self-reported personal and social adversities related to self-harm in this group to those in a random sample of heterosexual adolescents from the same locality.
Results: A total of 444 adolescents aged 13-21 years, comprising 74 LGBT adolescents and 370 heterosexual adolescents, provided data. The lifetime prevalence estimate of self-harm was higher in the LGBT group (47%) than the heterosexual group (23%). The LGBT group reported a higher rate of self-harm during the previous 12 months (45%), compared to the heterosexual group (18%). LGBT adolescents reported more alcohol and substance use and more personal social adversities, including various forms of victimisation, than heterosexual adolescents. They were no more likely to report difficulty in making and keeping friends or schoolwork problems than were heterosexual adolescents.
Across the world, self-harm is the single strongest risk factor for suicide among all age groups. In subSaharan Africa, suicide remains in the top 12 leading causes of death among young persons aged 10–24 years. Leading researchers and the WHO have reported that young people identifying as in a sexual or gender minority group are at elevated risk of self-harm and eventual suicide compared to heterosexual young people. However, neither our own recent systematic literature review, nor those of Aggarwal et al. and Lim et al. found studies providing evidence on the prevalence of self-harm in sexual or gender minority young people in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on previous recommendations, we included questions on sexual orientation (lesbian, gay or bisexual) and gender identity (transsexual) in a cross-sectional survey undertaken in the Greater Accra region of Ghana, in 2017; one of our objectives was to estimate the prevalence of self-harm among 2107 adolescents aged 13-21. Of the 2107 participants, 3.5% (n=74) self-identifed as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT). Te objective of this research note is to report on the prevalence of self-reported self-harm among those adolescent participants who self-identifed as LGBT, and to describe how they compare to a random sample of heterosexual adolescents drawn from the same survey, on personal factors and social adversities related to self-harm.