Background: There is solid evidence that spirituality and religiousness may reduce the suicidal ideation of individuals. However, studies are scarce on medical students.
Aims: To investigate the relationship between spirituality, religiousness, and suicidal ideation among Brazilian medical students.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study including Brazilian medical students. Sociodemographic and health variables, suicidal ideation (item 9 of the Beck Depression Inventory - BDI), spiritual and religious Coping (Brief SRC), religiousness (Duke Religion Index), spiritual well-being - Meaning, Peace and Faith (FACIT SP-12), and depressive (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7) symptoms were assessed.
Results: A total of 353 medical students were included, 62.0% presented significant depressive symptoms, 44.2% presented significant anxiety symptoms, and 14.2% presented suicidal ideation. In the adjusted Logistic Regression models, meaning (OR = 0.90, p = .035) and faith (OR = 0.91, p = .042) were associated with lower suicidal ideation, while negative spiritual and religious coping was associated with greater suicidal ideation (OR = 1.08; p = .006).
Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of suicidal ideation among Brazilian medical students. Spirituality and religiousness were associated with suicidal ideation in two different directions. These findings could help educators and health professionals to understand suicidal ideation among medical students, helping in the development of preventive strategies to mitigate such problem.
Keywords: Medical student; mental health; religion and medicine; spirituality; suicidal ideation.