Application for Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014

Despite the fact that suicide deaths are most often among men, especially among those who are most disadvantaged, relatively little research has focused specifically on men. Guided by the Integrated Motivational-Volitional (IMV) model, this project aims to use the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) database to enhance understanding of various aspects of men and women’s lives who experience suicidal thoughts and behaviour, such as socio-demographics and social support, which can guide prevention and intervention services. This project is part of a PhD “Towards an enhanced understanding of suicide risk in men”. The project will involve both quantitative and qualitative methods.

The University of Glasgow is the sole data controller with sole autonomy for determining the purposes for processing the APMS data and the manner of processing. The data will only be processed by the applicant who is a substantive employee of the University of Glasgow. No other organisation will process the data.

The lawful basis for processing is for research and public interest purposes. The processing will achieve the purpose of gaining an insight into the male experience of suicide. This research is in the public interest as it will provide an insight into the lives of people who have experienced suicidal thoughts and behaviours. It will provide potential areas for intervention and prevention efforts and will help to identify those at risk of attempting to take their own life.

The processing of this data has substantial public interest as it involves the use of a large general population survey, for which participants have consented to their data being used for mental health research. The rights and interests of the participants is safeguarded as this is a pseudonymised data-set and the participants were made aware that their data will be accessed by researchers and published (anonymously) in research publications.

The University of Glasgow does not foresee any potential moral or ethical issues to arise through the dissemination of this data, as the participants in this data-set have consented to their data being used for research purposes, their data is pseudonymised, and the data has already been collected. Ethics approval is not required for secondary analysis of pseudonymised epidemiological datasets.

The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) series provides data on the prevalence of both treated and untreated psychiatric disorder in the English adult population (aged 16 and over).

The overall aim of the present study, therefore, is to investigate the association between target variables and suicidal thinking and behaviours in men. There are two specific research questions: 1) What are the predisposing factors linked to suicide in men? 2) What are the differences between risk factors for suicidal thinking and behaviour in males and females?

The data will allow the researcher to investigate the risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviours in a large general population sample of adults. The data will be used for a research paper (or papers) investigating risk factors for suicide in men. Gender differences may also be investigated.

The Data Controller has not identified any alternative, less intrusive ways of achieving the purpose. The APMS dataset is already pseudonymised and therefore the level of data cannot be further minimised.

The data will be disseminated to the University of Glasgow by UK Data Services.

The APMS dataset will be received in a pseudonymised form so there will be no storage of directly identifiable data at any point. Data will be securely stored by the University of Glasgow, and accessed only by authorised personnel. No data will be linked to record patient level data, nor will it be passed onto other organisations. There will be no requirement nor attempt to re-identify individuals from the data. Standard statistical and advanced analyses (e.g. networked analyses) will be conducted in SPSS, R or other appropriate statistical packages. Only aggregate data will be used in research reports.

All organisations party to this agreement must comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract i.e.: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data).

​In order to protect patient confidentiality in publications resulting from analysis of APMS data, researchers will:

•guarantee that any outputs made available to anyone other than those with whom this agreement is made, will meet required standards, including the guarantee, methods and standards contained in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and the ONS Statistical Disclosure Control for tables produced from surveys;

•apply methods and standards specified in the Microdata Handling and Security Guide to Good Practice for disclosure control for statistical outputs.

All outputs will only contain data that is aggregated in line with NHS Digital guidelines.

This data will be used in at least one scientific research paper that will be prepared for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, such as The Lancet Psychiatry, and will be included in a PhD project. The target date for this is 2021.

The data presented in scientific research publications will be summary (aggregate) data.

The data will be disseminated via peer-reviewed journals, mental health blogs and academic conferences.

In order to protect patient confidentiality in publications resulting from analysis of APMS data users must:

• guarantee that any outputs made available to anyone other than those with whom this agreement is made, will meet required standards, including the guarantee, methods and standards contained in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and the ONS Statistical Disclosure Control for tables produced from surveys;

• apply methods and standards specified in the Microdata Handling and Security Guide to Good Practice for disclosure control for statistical outputs.

Target Date – 2021. This study will provide an enhanced understanding of suicide risk in men, by analysing the gender differences in a variety of factors such as help seeking and will provide key targets for health and social care services. This will aid services to better recognise and respond to men with suicidal ideation, in time helping to reduce the number of men in a suicidal crisis. This can also improve patient experience at a time when they are vulnerable as services are more equipped to identify and address issues that patients may be presenting with. This study will also provide further evidence in relation to the use of the Integrated Motivational Volitional (IMV) Model (O’Connor & Kirtley, 2018) of suicide in relation to male suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

Yielded Benefits is not a requirement for new applications.