Religious beliefs and attitudes toward suicide in a cohort of medical students at Queen's University Belfast.

Editor,

In 2002–2003 fourth year medical students at Queen’s University Belfast were invited to participate in a study of their religious beliefs and attitudes toward suicide. The study proposal was approved by the local Research Ethics Committee. Data was collected using the Royal Free Questionnaire for Spiritual and Religious Beliefs (Self-Report Version)[1] and an abbreviated form of the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (8 factor model)[2]. The questionnaires were offered to all 4th year medical students at a lecture during their undergraduate psychiatric placement; 152 were returned out of a year group of 180. Our statistical analysis of the results from the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire showed a lack of internal consistency and therefore much of the data was unusable. Further review of the literature showed that other authors have raised questions about the statistical reliability of the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ), particularly regarding factor stability.[3] However, some of the data is of relevance to factors influencing an important aspect of clinical practice. Demographic and spiritual information about the cohort are listed in Table 1.

Table 1.

Demographic and Spiritual Information from 4th Year Medical Students at Q.U.B. (2002–2003).

n=152
Age range		21–25 (mean 22)
Gender	Male	43%
	Female	57%
Religion	Religious and/or spiritual	93%
	Neither religious nor spiritual	7%
	Roman Catholic	44%
	Protestant	43%
	Muslim	4%
	Buddhist	3%|
Religious Activity	Prays alone	80%
	Attendance at religious ceremony	57%
	Religious study alone	53%

Some of the SOQ (Likert scale) data from the cohort was suitable for statistical analysis. Eight separate questions from the abbreviated SOQ formed a domain which measured belief about a right-to-die (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.79). The strength of belief in a right-to-die was then correlated against strength of religious belief (0–10 scale). This showed a moderately negative correlation i.e. a strong belief in a powerful deity that can influence what happens in one’s daily life tended to be associated with a belief that one does not have a right-to-die (p value <0.0001, R -0.43).

We can therefore see that this cohort of 2002–2003 fourth year medical students in Belfast had slightly more females than males with nearly 90% indicating affiliation to the Roman Catholic or Protestant churches. A majority engaged in religious activity of some kind. Of particular contemporary interest is a moderate correlation between a belief in a powerful deity and the belief that one does not have the right to end one’s own life.