Factors Associated With Suicidal Ideation In Rural Elderly Population Of Macheng, Hubei: A Matched Case Control Study

Objective: Contrast to biological, psychological and social state characteristics, factorsassociated with suicidal ideation was evaluated in the elderly rural Chinese people, in orderto effectively reduce the incidence of suicidal ideation and to provide a theoretical basis forsuicidal intervention measures.Methods: Multi-stage cluster sampling was adopted in this study. First,3townships wasrandomly selected from19rural towns in Macheng City; Second, we randomly selected17villages from the34villages under the selected towns; Finally, face-to-face interviewsurvey was to carry out in the elderly (≥60years). There were2025people completedinterviews, who with communication disorder, suffering from serious illness, leaving theirhomes and receiving hospital treatment were excluded.144suicidal ideators were screenedout as the case group, while no suicidal ideators of the same or neighboring villages werematched by age and gender in a1:2ratio. Associations were evaluated byχ2test, univariateand multivariate logistic regression analyses for data analysis.Results:1. Results of univariate conditional logistic regression analysisThe results of analysis on the basic situation of the rural elderly people showed thatchronic diseases（OR=0.5712，P=0.0123）, physical disability or impaired functioning（OR=0.7959，P=0.0093）were associated with suicidal ideation signifcantly. Factors associated with suicidal ideation among the family-economic sides such as relatives whohad a history of suicide（OR=1.1599，P=0.0089）, filial piety （OR=0.4466，P=0.0005）and economic difficulties（OR=0.5758，P=0.0079） in rural elderly population hadstatistically significant.Factor analysis of posttraumatic experience in elderly suicidal ideators showed thatphysical abused, emotional abused, catch jessed need to see a doctor, suffered disasters oraccidents affecting the ability of life, witness disasters or accidents affecting the ability oflife, suffered physical torture and suffered emotional or psychological torture were riskfactors for suicidal ideation in the elderly.Factors associated with suicidal ideation among mental health area showed thataccept the community psychological health services, counseling of alcohol and drugs,counseling of emotional problems, long-term effects of negative feelings or emotions of anormal life were significantly by statistical tests. In addition low neighborhood intimacy,life with no hope for the future and positive attitude were risk factors for suicidal ideationin elderly.2. Results of multivariate conditional logistic regression analysisAfter controlling other factors, suffered disasters or accidents affecting the ability of life,suffered physical torture and long-term effects of negative feelings or emotions of a normallife were significantly associated with suicidal ideation.Conclusions: Suffered disasters or accidents affecting the ability of life, suffered physicaltorture and long-term effects of negative feelings or emotions of a normal life (eg,depression, fear and anxiety) in rural elderly people were risk factor for suicidal ideation; suggesting that screening of posttraumatic experience in the elderly population and theappropriate interventions are an effective way to prevent the suicidal ideation.