Is the association between sexual minority status and suicide-related behaviours modified by rurality? A...

While self-reported data shows that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LBG) individuals have a greater suicide-related behaviours (SRB) risk, little is known about how rurality may amplify SRB risk associated with sexual minority status. Sexual minority individuals in rural areas may experience unique stressors due to stigma and a lack of LGB-specific social and mental health services. Using a population-representative sample linked to clinical SRB outcomes, we examined whether rurality modifies the association between sexual minority status and SRB risk.

A nationally representative survey linked to administrative health data was used to construct a cohort of individuals (unweighted n = 169,091; weighted n = 8,778,115) in Ontario, Canada, and captured all SRB-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths between 2007 and 2017. Sex-stratified discrete-time survival analyses were used to examine interactions between rurality and sexual minority status on SRB risk while controlling for potential confounders.

Sexual minority men had 2.18 times higher SRB odds compared to their heterosexual counterparts (95%CI 1.21-3.91), while sexual minority women had 2.07 times higher odds (95%CI 1.48-2.89) after adjusting for the confounders. The Rurality Index of Ontario and the Index of Remoteness were associated with the odds of SRB in a dose-response manner. No significant interactions were observed between rural and sexual minority status.

Our study provides evidence that rural and sexual minority status both independently contribute to an elevated likelihood of SRB; however, rurality did not appear to modify SRB risk by sexual orientation. Implementation and evaluation of interventions to reduce SRB in both rural and sexual minority populations are required.