Diabetes and Suicide Risk Among Black Males, Including Sexual Minority Males: A Narrative Review With Primary Care Implications.

Abstract

Purpose of review: Diabetes and suicide are intersecting public health concerns, yet evidence at this intersection remains sparse for Black males and especially Black sexual minority males (SMM). This focused narrative review synthesizes direct and adjacent evidence, with emphasis on diabetes-specific disparities, intersectional stress processes, and primary care implications.

Recent findings: The diabetes-suicide literature is heterogeneous, but consistently identifies depression, diabetes distress, treatment burden, complications, and access to insulin or other medications as clinically relevant pathways. For Black males, structural racism, economic inequity, health care discrimination, and constrained access to high-quality diabetes and mental health care may intensify these burdens. The most directly relevant study identified found more lifetime suicide attempts among African American adults with type 1 diabetes than controls, but did not report male-specific estimates. We identified no study estimating diabetes-related suicidal thoughts or behaviors specifically among Black SMM. Common tools such as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Diabetes Distress Scale, and Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale have broad clinical support but have not been specifically validated in Black males with diabetes or Black SMM. Common tools such as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Diabetes Distress Scale, and Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale have broad clinical support, but the literature identified in this review did not establish their population-specific validity among Black males with diabetes, including Black SMM. The central finding is an evidence gap, not proof of a multiplicative risk effect. Primary care clinicians should use culturally responsive psychosocial inquiry, direct suicide assessment when indicated, collaborative safety planning, and integrated behavioral health care while avoiding assumptions that screening tools perform equivalently across populations. Prospective, disaggregated research and population-specific measurement studies are urgently needed.