Past Issues

Objective: The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to identify the clinical and demographic characteristics of a group of elderly individuals who had contemplated the idea of suicide. Methods: The study population consisted of 178 community-dwelling individuals aged 65 years or over who lived in one neighbourhood of Gushan District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. A variety of Study measures include demographic factors, stressful life events, Chinese version of the Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire (CMFAQ) of social resources, Taiwanese brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (QOL), 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale, Mini-Mental State Examination, CMFAQ of activities of daily living (ADL) and Chinese version of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to study the participants. We compared these variables assessed using the above measures between those who had and had not contemplated the idea of suicide. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied to identify possible associated factors for contemplating suicide in this elderly population. Results: In total, 95 subjects (50 men and 45 women) with a mean age of 73.4±5.2 years completed the evaluation. Twenty-two of the study subjects had contemplated suicide. All showed a tendency of (1) having musculoskeletal disorders, endocrine disorders and a poor self-perceived health condition; and (2) experiencing fi nancial stressors, other stressful life events and a greater number of life events, (3) having fewer social resources, low ADL and QOL scores, poor selfperceived sleep quality and more severe levels of depression. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the level of depression and the QOL scores for the physical domain were identifi ed as possible factors associated with contemplating suicide. Conclusions: Contemplating the idea of suicide is more likely to be associated with clinical depression and the QOL physical domain. The recognition of depression should form an important part of suicide prevention among the elderly. There is still a major need to emphasize on mental health education in Taiwan.