Objective  To explore the prevalence of suicidal ideation among Chinese medical students in mainland China during 2007 to 2020, so as to provide evidence for the prevention of suicide in medical students and the development of their psychological health education. 

Methods  PubMed, China National Knowledge Internet, Wanfang, and China Biology Medicine databases were searched for studies investigating the incidence of suicidal ideation among Chinese medical students in mainland China, between January 1, 2007 to October 31, 2020. After study screening and selection, data extraction and methodological quality assessment according to preset inclusion and exclusion criterion, meta-analysis was conducted using Stata12.0 software. 

Results  A total of 39 studies involving 92,363 participants were included. During 2007 to 2020, the prevalence of suicidal ideation of medical students ranged from 0.84% to 41.35%. The results of meta-analysis showed that the pooled prevalence of suicidal ideation was 11.73% (95%CI = 7.69%-16.48%). Subgroup analysis and meta-regression showed the result was stably. No significant publication bias was found. 

Conclusions  The prevalence of suicidal ideation among medical students in mainland China is relatively high in recent years. We suggest that psychological health education of medical students should be paid more attention at the school level, and the communication between counselors and tutors and students should be normalized.

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