Objective  To explore the association of work-family conflict with suicidal ideation among medical staff for developing relevant interventions to prevent suicidal ideation and behavior in the population.

  Methods  A face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted among 3 426 medical staff recruited at 12 general hospitals in 12 districts/counties of Shandong province from November 2018 through January 2019. The participants were asked to answer questions on lifetime and past one year suicidal ideation and scales including Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D), Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ), and the Work-Family Conflict Scale developed by domestic researchers.

  Results   Of all the participants, 9.1% and 7.0% reported lifetime and one-year suicidal ideation. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed following risk factors for lifetime and one-year suicidal ideation: higher education (doctor vs. below undergraduate: odds ratio OR = 4.32, P < 0.001 and OR = 4.21, P < 0.01), suffering physical illness (OR = 1.58, P < 0.01 and OR = 1.51, P < 0.05), with work-family conflict (OR = 1.03, P < 0.01 and OR = 1.02, P < 0.05), and having depressive symptoms (OR = 1.09 and OR = 1.10, both P < 0.001); while, male gender was a protective factors against lifetime and one-year suicidal ideation (OR = 0.54 and OR = 0.46, both P < 0.001). Mediation effect analysis demonstrated that depressive symptoms has a mediating effect on the correlation between work-family conflict and lifetime and one-year suicidal ideation, with the effect values of 0.0237 and 0.0265, accounting for 45.84% and 53.64% of the total effect, respectively.

  Conclusion   Among medical stuff, work-family conflict exerts a direct impact on suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms mediate the promotion effect of work-family conflict on suicidal ideation.