Investigating the Effectiveness of the Health-promoting Lifestyle Educational Program on Suicidal Thoughts in Healthcare Workers

Suicide is a crisis, and its occurrence in healthcare workers (HCWs) is a special challenge that requires urgent interventions.

This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the health promotion lifestyle training program on suicidal thoughts in HCWs.

This one-sample longitudinal study was conducted using a multi-stage sampling method on 248 healthcare providers in 2023. In the first stage, the Beck scale was used to measure suicidal thoughts, and the DASS-21 was used to measure depression, anxiety, and stress. In the second stage, individuals with suicidal thoughts were placed in a separate group, and educational intervention continued for them. The health promotion lifestyle training protocol was provided to this group as a training program, and researchers followed up on its implementation for 95 days. In the third stage, after the completion of the educational intervention, the Beck scale and DASS-21 were once again provided to the target group. Data were analyzed in SPSS-25 statistical software.

27.8% of participants had suicidal thoughts, 7.66% represented high-risk suicidal ideation, and 20.1% had low-risk suicidal ideation. 69 HCWs who had suicidal thoughts used the health-promoting lifestyle education program for 95 days. The percentage of suicidal thoughts in people with high suicidal risk ideation decreased from 7.66% to 4.03% (p<0.05), and in people with low-risk suicidal ideation decreased from 20.1% to 13.30% (p<0.05).

Health promotion educational programs can be used as an effective intervention in improving mental health indicators and reducing suicidal thoughts in HCWs.