Comparison of rates of suicide methods used by the elderly in England and Wales

Abstract

the following United Nations websites: household size -www.unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/ sconcerns/housing/housing2.htm (median year for these data from different countries was 1991); density per room -www.unstats.un.org/unsd/ demographic/products/socind/housing.htm;and general population density -www.unstats.un.org/ unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2006/Table03. pdf. Spearman's correlation coefficient (ρ) was used to examine the relationship between elderly suicide rates and the household size, the general population density and the density of the number of people per room.There were significant negative correlations between the average number of people living in a household and suicide rates in males aged 65-74 years (ρ = −0.39, P = 0.006), males aged 75+ years (ρ = −0.46, P = 0.001), females aged 65-74 years (ρ = −0.53, P ;< 0.00001) and females aged 75+ years (ρ = −0.51, P < 0.00001) for 47 countries. There were no significant correlations between elderly suicide rates and general population density (data for 78 countries) and the density of people per household room (data for 36 countries).The negative correlation between elderly suicide rates and household size confirms the findings of a recent study (Shah, 2009), which used a different data source for household size. However, the negative findings do not allow further clarification of the relative contribution of emotional and geographical proximity explanations to elderly suicide rates. The negative findings may be the result of the well-described methdological issues in ecological studies of elderly suicides (Shah, 2009). The emotional and geographical proximity explanations are both likely to contribute simultaneously to elderly suicides rather than be "either/or" explanations. Conflict of interest Comparison of rates of suicide methods used by the elderly in England and WalesBecause suicide rates have traditionally increased with age (Shah and De, 1998;Shah, 2007), the observed reduction in suicide rates among older people may be an important contributor to the U.K. government's target to reduce suicide rates in the general population by at least one-sixth of the 1996 baseline by 2010 (Department of Health, 1999). Previous studies have observed that suicide rates in older people have declined in both sexes over the 12-year period (1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996) and 24-year period in England and Wales (Hoxey and Shah, 2000;Shah et al., 2001), although the rates are still considerably higher than those among younger adults. It is believed that a better understanding of the methods used by older people for suicide may lead to the development of targeted preventative strategies, which are expected to meet the challenge of sustaining this observed decline in suicide rates among older people over time in England and Wales (Lindesay, 1991;Dennis and Lindesay, 1995).Traditionally, elderly men use more violent methods of suicide, including hanging, strangulation and suffocation, shotgun and larger firearm discharge...