Low Birthweight and Trajectories of Suicidal Ideation among Adolescencts: Influence of Childhood Socioeconomic Status

Objectives: Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among adolescents in Taiwan. This study examines the relationship between low birth weight (<2500g) and suicide, and how childhood socioeconomic status (SES) affects this relationship.

Methods: 2,515 adolescents and their parents completed questionnaires from the Taiwan Education Panel Survey (TEPS). After trajectory analyses were performed, multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the simultaneous effects of birth weight and childhood SES on suicidal ideation trajectories.

Results: We identified two distinctive trajectories of suicidal ideation: class 1 (persistently low, 65.3%); and class 2 (moderately rising, 34.7%). Adolescents with low birth weight and poor childhood SES were more likely to be in class 2 (37.2% and 36.1%, respectively). After adjusting for confounders, low-birth-weight adolescents had higher risk of being in class 2, but the association was not significant (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.42). When examining the combined effect, we found low-birth-weight and lower-SES adolescents had significantly higher risks of being in class 2 than the reference group (OR = 2.01, 95% CI 1.10 to 3.68).

Conclusion: Effects of low birth weight on suicidal ideation trajectory patterns were conditioned by childhood SES. Thus, we need to improve the resilience of low-birth-weight children to social adversity starting in early childhood.