Global Self-Rated Health Status Predicts Reasons for Living Among Older Adults

Abstract

This study examined predictors of reasons for living among community-dwelling older adults (N = 104, M age = 69.7 years). Participants completed the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), the Elders Life Stress Inventory (ELSI), the Life Orientation Test (LOT), and the Reasons for Living Inventory, and also rated their global health status. Standard multiple regression assessed the extent to which age, depression, stress, optimism, and health status predicted total reasons for living. The model explained 12% of the variance in reasons for living (R 2 = .12, p < .05). Health made the strongest unique and significant contribution to RFL (β = 0.26, p < .05) and age approached significance (β = −0.19, p = .055). The GDS, ELSI, and LOT all made minimal and non-significant contributions. An implication is that attention to physical health status should be a standard part of suicide risk assessment, especially among older adults. Results suggest that reduced quality of life due to poor overall health may erode an individual's protective factors against suicide.

Religiousness, social support and reasons for living in African American and European American older adults: An exploratory study

“…Indeed, these cultural scripts play an important role in shaping important attitudes and resiliency toward suicide across then lifespan and are worthy of further study. Because compromised physical health status is known to be an important risk factor for suicidal behavior among older adults (see a recent review by Fiske, O'Riley, & Widoe, 2008) and because global health status has also been shown to significantly relate to reasons for living (Segal, Lebenson, & Coolidge, 2008), future studies should also explore the impact of health status on perceived support and religiousness as they relate to diverse types of deterrents to suicidal ideation and behavior among older adults. Prospective studies are needed to examine more clearly the causal relationships between religiousness, social support, and deterrents to suicide among European American and African American older adults.…”

Death wishes among older people assessed for home support and long‐term aged residential care

“…(2010) showed that poor self‐rated health status was a stronger risk factor for depression in older people than the presence of chronic disease itself. Segal et al () found that global perceived health status had the strongest significant contribution to reasons for living among older people; while depressive symptoms, stressful experiences and optimism made minimal and non‐significant contributions. They recommended that attention to physical health status should be a standard part of suicide risk assessment in older people.…”

Relationships among depressive, passive-aggressive, sadistic and self-defeating personality disorder features with suicidal ideation and reasons for living among older adults

“…The RFL encompasses six subscales: survival and coping beliefs, responsibility to family, child-related concerns, fear of suicide, fear of social disapproval, and moral objections. The RFL has a solid theoretical base, is extensively used in research, and has abundant evidence of reliability of scale scores in diverse populations and validity for use as a screening measure of suicide resilience (see Range, 2005) including several studies with older adults (e.g., Marty, Segal, & Coolidge, 2010;Miller, Segal, & Coolidge, 2001;Segal, Lebenson, & Coolidge, 2008;Segal & Needham, 2007). Alpha coefficients in the present sample are shown in Table 1.…”