CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 89Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesAging, Health, and DisabilityElder Abuse and Neglect

“Why do they become vulnerable when faced with the challenges of old age?”: Elderly people who committed suicide, described by those who knew them

Open access
Kjølseth, Ildri, Ekeberg, Øivind, Steihaug, Sissel·2009·International Psychogeriatrics
DOI 10.1017/s1041610209990342
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Suicidal behavior among the elderly is a research field in which qualitative and quantitative methods can and should supplement each other. The objective of this qualitative study is to investigate whether the descriptions of elderly people who committed suicide, given by those who knew them, can provide common features that create recognizable patterns, and if so whether these patterns can help to shed light on the suicidal process. METHOD: This is a psychological autopsy study based on qualitative interviews with 63 informants concerning 23 suicides committed by persons aged over 65 in Norway. The informants were relatives, their family doctors, and home-based care nurses. In general, the analysis of the interviews follows the systematic text condensation method. RESULTS: The descriptions have three main topics: life histories, personality traits and relationships. "Life histories" includes the sub-topics ability to survive and action-oriented achievers. They describe people who came through difficult circumstances when growing up and who were action-oriented in life in general and in crises. "Personality traits" includes the sub-topics obstinacy and controlling others. The informants saw the elderly people as strong-willed, obstinate and possessing a considerable ability to control themselves and those around them. "Relationships" includes the sub-topics I didn't know him and He showed no ability to meet us halfway, and describes the informants' experience of emotionally closed persons who kept a distance in their relationships. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of the descriptions of the elderly people given in this study, we argue that these individuals will find difficulty in accepting and adapting to age-related loss of function since their self-esteem is so strongly associated with being productive and in control. Loss of control reveals their vulnerability - and this they cannot tolerate.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s1041610209990342

Cites

35 of 35 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In a recent Norwegian psychological autopsy study, relationships between the informants and the older adult (65+) who died by suicide were often difficult and distant.

    “A recent Norwegian psychological autopsy study used a qualitative approach to explore relationships between the informants and the older adult (65+) who died by suicide. Findings showed that the relationships were often difficult and distant [61].”

    From A systematic review of social factors and suicidal behavior in older adulthood (2012) · cites this paper as [61]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Kjølseth, I., Ekeberg, Ø., & Steihaug, S.
Affiliations
  • University of Oslo (NO)
  • SINTEF (NO)
Corresponding author
Kjølseth, Ildri
Venue
International Psychogeriatrics
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009-10
Volume
21
Issue
5
Pages
903-912
ISSN
1041-6102 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1017/s1041610209990342
OpenAlex
W2012217718
Cited by
89
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
FWCI
4.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • International Psychogeriatrics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Elder Abuse and Neglect
Keywords
elderly suicide, psychological autopsy, life history (social science method), personality traits, obstinacy, controlling behavior, interpersonal relationships, loss of function, self-esteem, vulnerability in old age
MeSH terms
Achievement, Adaptation, Psychological, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Emotions, Female, Humans, Internal-External Control, Interpersonal Relations, Interview, Psychological, Life Change Events, Male, Motivation, Norway, Personality Assessment, Psychological Distance, Suicide, Resilience, Psychological

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review