The Risk Factors of Suicidal Ideation by Age Groups among the Elderly in Korea

Article information

Korean J Health Promot. 2015;15(2):54-62

Publication date (electronic) : 2015 December 19

doi : https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2015.15.2.54

Department of Nursing, Suwon Science College, Hwaseong, Korea

￭ Corresponding author：Eun Kyung Kim, PhD Department of Nursing, Suwon Science College, 288 Seja-ro, Jeongnam-myeon, Hwaseong 445-742, Korea Tel: +82-31-350-2430, Fax: +82-31-350-2076 E-mail: ekkim430@ssc.ac.kr

Received 2014 September 30; Accepted 2015 May 22.

Abstract

Background

This study aimed to compare the prevalence and risk factors of suicidal ideation by age groups among the elderly in Korea.

Methods

This cross-sectional study used Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (V-3, 2012). The participants were divided into two age groups: the young-old (n=1,016, 65-74 years), old-old (n=579, 75 years or greater) groups. Multiple logistic regression was used for data analysis.

Results

The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 19.6% of young-old and 22.7% of old-old, respectively. There was no difference on prevalence of suicidal ideation by age groups. Risk factors of suicidal ideation differ by age groups. In the young-old group, higher suicidal ideation showed significant correlation with a higher level of depression, perceived stress and a lower level of education, self-rated health. In the old-old group, higher suici-dal ideation showed significant correlation with a higher level of depression, perceived stress, restriction of ac-tivity, and pain/discomfort.

Conclusions

Age group-specific nursing strategies may be required for prevention of suicidal ideation in elderly.

Keywords: Aged; Suicidal ideation; Risk factors

Table 1.

Characteristics and suicidal ideation according to age-specific groups (n=1,595)

Table 2.

Factors related to suicidal ideation in the young-old elderly (n=1,016)

Table 3.

Factors related to suicidal ideation in the old-old elderly (n=579)

References

1. Statistics Korea. Population Projections 2010-2060 Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2010. [Accessed June 10, 2014]. http://kosis.kr.

2. Statistics Korea. Cause of death statistics Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2012. [Accessed June 10, 2014]. http://kostat.go.kr/portal/korea/kor_nw/2/6/2/index.board?bmode=read&aSeq=308559&pageNo=1&rowNum=10&navCount=10&currPg=&sTarget=title&sTxt=.

3. Ministry of Health & Welfare. ｢OECD Health data 2014｣ Analysis of major index Sejong: Ministry of Health & Welfare; 2014. [Accessed June 10, 2014]. http://www.mw.go.kr/front_new/al/sal0301vw.jsp?PAR_MENU_ID=04&MENU_ID=0403&CONT_SEQ=301867&page=1.

4. Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emergency department based injury in-depth surveillance, 2006 Cheongwon: Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2006. [Accessed September 10, 2014]. http://cdc.go.kr.

5. Szanto K, Gildengers A, Mulsant BH, Brown G, Alexopoulos GS, ReynoldsIII CF. Identification of suicidal ideation and pre-vention of suicidal behaviour in the elderly. Drugs Aging 2002;19(1):11–24.

6. Kim HS. A study on epistemology of Korean elder's suicidal thought. J Korean Gerontol Soc 2002;22(1):159–72.

7. Statistics Korea. The survey on the actual conditions of older person in Korea Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2011. [Accessed June 10, 2014]. http://kosis.kr.

8. Miller JS, Segal DL, Coolidge FL. A comparison of suicidal thinking and reasons for living among younger and older adults. Death Stud 2001;25(4):357–65.

9. Mun YH, Im MY. Suicidal ideation and associated factors of the elderly according to residence area - focusing on the compar-isons between urban and rural areas -. J Korean Public Health Nurs 2013;27(3):551–63.

10. Kim HK, Ko SH, Jeong SH. Suicidal ideation and risk factors among the elderly in Korea. J Korean Acad Public Health Nurs 2010;24(1):82–92.

11. Fairweather AK, Anstey KJ, Rodgers B, Jorm AF, Christensen H. Age and gender differences among Australian suicide idea-tors: prevalence and correlates. J Nerv Ment Dis 2007;195(2):130–6.

12. Choi YH, Kim SH. Suicide ideation and related factors according to depression in older adults. J Korean Gerontol Soc 2008;28(2):345–55.

13. Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The fifth Korea national health and nutrition examination survey (KNHANES V-3) Cheongwon: Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2012. [Accessed June 10, 2014]. http://knhanes.cdc.go.kr/knhanes/index.do.

14. Choi HA, Lee DS, Kim YJ. Analysis on depression and suicidal ideation of Korean female adults-by using Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES Ⅳ). J Korean Data Anal Soc 2011;13(2):709–20.

15. Lee SH. Comparative study on influencing factors of suicidal ideation according to sex in the elderly. J Korean Public Health Nurs 2013;27(3):500–12.

16. Cho KH, Kim YK. Influencing factors on depression, suicidal thought, and life satisfaction of Korean elders. J Korean Acad Soc Nurs Edu 2008;14(2):176–87.

17. Statistics Korea. Cause of suicidal ideation and suicidal trial of elderly according to general characteristics (2011) Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2011. [Accessed June 10, 2014]. http://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?orgId=117&tblId=DT_11771_2011N087&conn_path=I2.

18. Statistics Korea. Adolescents statistics Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2013. [Accessed June 10, 2014]. http://kostat.go.kr.

19. Kim HS. The elderly and deviant behavior (suicide). J Welf Aged 2000;10(1):25–45.

20. Tajvar M, Arab M, Montazeri A. Determinants of health-related quality of life in elderly in Tehran, Iran. BMC Public Health 2008;8:323.

21. Awata S, Seki T, Koizumi Y, Sato S, Hozawa A, Omori K, et al. Factors associated with suicidal ideation in an elderly urban Japanese population: a community-based, cross-sectional study. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2005;59(3):327–36.

22. Jeon EY, Choi YH. Factors affecting the health-related quality of life according to age in vulnerable aged men. J Korean Acad Nurs 2010;40(3):400–10.

23. Idler EL, Benyamini Y. Self-rated health and mortality: a review of twenty-seven community studies. J Health Soc Behav 1997;38(1):21–37.

24. Kõlves K, Värnik A, Schneider B, Fritze J, Allik J. Recent life events and suicide: a case-control study in Tallinn and Frankfurt. Soc Sci Med 2006;62(11):2887–96.

Article information Continued

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Table 1.

Characteristics and suicidal ideation according to age-specific groups (n=1,595)

Characteristics		Young-old elderly (n=1,016)	Old-old elderly (n=579)	χ²/t	P^a
Characteristics		Mean (±SD)/N (%)	Mean (±SD)/N (%)	χ²/t	P^a
Suicidal ideation	Yes	172 (19.6)	108 (22.7)	1.38	0.242
	No	774 (80.4)	375 (77.3)
Sociodemographic characteristics
Age, y Sex	Male	69.31 (±0.12) 452 (45.4)	78.68 (±0.18) 221 (34.9)	9.29	0.003
	Female	564 (54.6)	358 (65.1)
Education	≤Elementary	547 (60.5)	356 (77.3)	26.59	<0.001
	Middle≤	401 (39.5)	127 (22.7)
Living condition	With family	765 (75.4)	289 (47.4)	80.03	<0.001
Place of residence	Alone Rural	243 (24.6) 730 (70.6)	288 (52.6) 344 (59.1)	3.16	0.003
	Urban	286 (29.4)	235 (40.9)
Household income	1 quartile (lowest)	411 (41.7)	352 (65.2)	55.17	<0.001
	2 quartile≤	584 (58.3)	217 (34.8)
Health characteristics
Chronic disease	Yes No	388 (38.7) 628 (61.3)	211 (35.4) 368 (64.6)	1.07	0.301
Restriction of activity	Yes	153 (17.9)	104 (21.9)	1.68	0.197
	No	799 (82.1)	381 (78.1)
Pain/discomfort	Yes	264 (27.8)	188 (37.7)	10.38	0.002
	No	690 (72.2)	304 (62.3)
Depression	Yes	133 (14.9)	86 (19.2)	2.46	0.118
Self-rated health	No Bad	814 (85.1) 290 (32.4)	396 (80.8) 180 (37.3)	2.77	0.098
	Good	663 (67.6)	313 (62.7)
Perceived stress	More	195 (20.9)	101 (21.7)	0.08	0.775
	Less	751 (79.1)	379 (78.3)
Walking, min		74.89 (±3.45)	57.55 (±3.65)	2.64	0.106
Sleeping, h		6.44 (±0.06)	6.58 (±0.11)	0.01	0.912

Calculated by chi-square test/t-test.

Table 2.

Factors related to suicidal ideation in the young-old elderly (n=1,016)

Characteristics		Model 1^b			Model 2^c
Characteristics		OR	(95% CI)	P^a	OR	(95% CI)	P^a
Sociodemographic characteriistics
Sex	Male	0.83	(0.52-.1.32)	0.830	1.00	(0.50-2.00)	0.990
	Female	1			1
Education	≤Elementary Middle≤	2.29 1	(1.38-3.80)	0.001	2.23 1	(1.10-4.51)	0.025
Living condition	With family	0.90	(0.56-1.46)	0.678	1.26	(0.57-2.79)	0.565
	Alone	1			1
Place of residence	Rural	0.88	(0.58-1.32)	0.538	0.71	(0.38-1.34)	0.295
	Urban	1			1
Household income	1 quartile (lowest)	1.33	(0.83-2.12)	0.226	0.84	(0.47-1.53)	0.585
	2 quartile≤	1			1
Negelkerke R²			0.06
F (P)			4.46 (0.001)
Health characteristics
Chronic disease	Yes				0.71	(0.38-1.33)	0.294
	No				1
Restriction of activity	Yes No				1.35 1	(0.56-3.25)	0.501
Pain/discomfort	Yes				1.39	(0.76-2.54)	0.273
	No				1
Depression	Yes				14.15	(6.13-32.65)	<0.001
	No				1
Self-rated health	Poor Good				2.67 1	(1.52-4.69)	0.001
Perceived stress	More				2.31	(1.10-4.82)	0.026
	Less				1
Walking					1.00	(0.99-1.00)	0.828
Sleeping					1.08	(0.98-1.31)	0.400
Negelkerke R²						0.40
F (P)						8.17 (<0.001)

Abbreviations: OR, odds ratio; 95% CI, 95% confidence interval.

Assessed by multiple logistic regression.

Entered variables in model 1 were sociodemographic characteristics.

Entered variables in model 2 were sociodemographic and health characteristics.