Burden of illness and suicide in elderly people: case-control study
Open accessAbstract
Objectives: To study the association between physical illness and suicide in elderly people. Design: Case-control with illness determined from interviews with relatives of people who committed suicide and with control participants and from medical records. Setting: Gothenburg and two surrounding counties (210 703 people aged 65 years and over). Participants: Consecutive records of people who had committed suicide and had undergone forensic examination (46 men, 39 women) and living control participants from the tax register (84 men, 69 women). Main outcome measures: Physical illness rated in 13 organ systems according to the cumulative illness rating scale-geriatrics; serious physical illness (organ category score 3 or 4); overall score for burden of physical illness. Results: Visual impairment (odds ratio 7.0, 95% confidence interval 2.3 to 21.4), neurological disorders (3.8, 1.5 to 9.4), and malignant disease (3.4, 1.2 to 9.8) were associated with increased risk for suicide. Serious physical illness in any organ category was an independent risk factor for suicide in the multivariate regression model (6.4, 2.0 to 20.0). When the sexes were analysed separately, serious physical illness was associated with suicide in men (4.2, 1.8 to 9.5) as was high burden of physical illness (2.8, 1.2 to 6.5). Such associations were not seen in women, possibly because of the small sample size. Conclusions: Visual impairment, neurological disorders, and malignant disease were independently associated with increased risk of suicide in elderly people. Serious physical illness may be a stronger risk factor for suicide in men than in women.
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There are gender-related differences in the link between physical illness and suicide.
“just as there are gender-related differences in the link between physical illness and suicide [51].”
From A systematic review of social factors and suicidal behavior in older adulthood (2012) · cites this paper as [51]
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- Authors
- Waern, M., Rubenowitz, E., Runeson, B., Skoog, I., Wilhelmson, K., & Allebeck, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- ORCID
- Venue
- BMJ
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2002-06-08
- Volume
- 324
- Issue
- 7350
- Pages
- 1355.1
- ISSN
- 0007-1447 (ISSN-L)
- 0959-8138
- 1468-5833
- PMC
- PMC115206
- OpenAlex
- W2016518068
- Cited by
- 360
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 14.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.bmj.com/company/legal-information/terms-conditions/legal-information/tdm-licencepolicy (tdm)
- Locations
- BMJ (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Lundbeckfonden
- Göteborgs Läkaresällskap
- H. Lundbeck A/S
- Medical Research Council
- 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 › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
- Keywords
- suicide, older adults, physical illness, disease burden, visual impairment, neurological disorders, cancer, sex differences, suicide risk factors
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Mental Disorders, Female, Health Status, Humans, Male, Neoplasms, Nervous System Diseases, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Suicide, Vision Disorders, Multivariate Analysis, Case-Control Studies
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