Table 2.

Characteristics of studies describing suicidal ideation and self-harm behaviours.1

Author/Year/ Country	Design	Participants	Outcome measure related to suicide or self-harm	Population/ Setting
Smalley et al. (2020) United States	Retrospective multi centre study Quality improvement project	Visitors to the emergency department with a ‘behavioural health’ issue	Self-harm and alcohol use were identified as ‘behavioural health’ issue. Data was collected on the occurrence of these at the emergency department. During the one-month study period, the hospital system had 31,387 ED encounters with 2477 (7.9% of visits)	Emergency department patients
Cai et al. (2020) China	Case control study	N= 2346 (1173 frontline and 1173 age- and sex-matched non-frontline medical workers) M=702 F= 1644	Suicidal ideation Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Suicidal ideations were measured by one question: “Over the past two weeks, have you ever had suicidal thoughts?” The responses to this question were “Once/several times” or “Never”	Community and medical workers
Bryan et al. (2020) United States	Cross-sectional	Adults N=10, 625 general population survey	Self-injurious thoughts, suicidal ideation, attempted suicide Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview (SITBI)	Community general population
Caballero-Domínguez et al. (2020) Colombia	Cross-sectional	N=700 F=476 M=224 General population survey	Suicide risk Depression Scale of the Center for Epidemiological Studies (CES-D-IS).	Online community
Xiaoming et al. (2020) China	Cross-sectional survey	8817 hospital workers F= 6874 M= 1943	Suicidal and self-harm ideation	Hospital workers
Xin et al. (2020) China	Cross sectional survey	N= 24,378 M= 7,865 F= 16,513	Self-harm or suicidal ideation The item “Over the past 2 weeks, how often have you thought that you would be better off dead, or of hurting yourself” of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9	Community – university students
Killgore et al. (2020) United States	Cross sectional survey	N=3120 18–84 years old; F= 1691 M= 1429 General population	Suicidal ideation Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 (PHQ-9)	Community-Online
Gratz et al. (2020) United States	Cross sectional survey	N= 500 F= 235 M=259 General population	Suicide risk The Depression Symptom Index-Suicide Subscale (DSI-SS)	Community – Online
Ahorsu et al. (2020) Iran	Cross-sectional survey	Total N= 580 Pregnant women (n= 290) Their husbands (n=290)	Suicidal ideation Patient Health Questionnaire-9	Community – Pregnant women and their husbands
Li et al. (2020) Taiwan	Cross sectional survey	2031 respondents, data of 1970 analysed. F=1305 M= 650 Transgender=15	Suicidal thoughts Suicidal thoughts were assessed with the question on a 5-point Likert scale, with scores ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (extremely severe).	>20 years old Facebook users
Hao et al. (2020) China	Cross sectional survey	Total n = 185 Psychiatric Patients (n = 76, M=25, F=51). Healthy controls (n = 109, M=41, F=68).	Suicidal Ideation	Hospital – dedicated to COVID-19
Fitzpatrick et al. (2020) United States	Cross sectional survey	10,368 adults General population	Suicidal ideation and attempts Suicide Behavior Questionnaire (SBQ-R)	Online community
Hou et al. (2020) China	Cross sectional survey	N= 859 524 students were left-behind children. Males (61.4 %) 16 years and below 79.4%	Suicidal ideation and attempts Measured with two items “I thought about killing myself” (Yes/no) and “I deliberately tried to kill myself” (Yes/no).	Senior high school students in rural China
Papadopoulou et al. (2020) Greece	Cross sectional survey	N= 5116 M=1292 F= 3819 Other = 5	Suicide ideation PHQ-9	Online community
Czeisler et al. (2020) United States	Cross sectional survey	N=5412 F= 2784 M= 2676 Other=10 General population	Suicidal Ideation PHQ-9	Online community
Olding et al. (2020) United Kingdom	Prospective cohort study	14 participants Data was collected prospectively and reviewed retrospectively on trauma attendances to King's College Hospital	Self-harm during the lockdown	Hospital
Iob et al. United Kingdom	Longitudinal survey	N = 44 775 M= 21929 F= 22 846	Thoughts and attempts of self-harm suicide, self-harm behaviours Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)	Online community
Kim et al. (2020) Korea	Qualitative	72 caregivers, M=18 F=54	Suicidal ideations Scale not specified	Caregivers quarantined with young patients after a close contact to a coronavirus disease 2019 case at a children's hospital
Hamm et al. (2020) United States	Mixed Methods	73 participants (M= 23,F= 50). Mean age 69.2 (6.0)	Suicidal ideation PHQ-9 item 9,	Patients with a pre-existing diagnosis of Major depressive disorder