The health status of elderly persons in the last year of life: A comparison of deaths by suicide, injury, and natural causes

L. Grabbe, A. Demi, M.A. Camann and L. Potter

American Journal of Public Health, 1997, vol. 87, issue 3, 434-437

Abstract: Objectives. This study identified health status variables related to suicide by elderly persons and compared the health status of suicide decedents with natural death and injury decedents. Methods. Data were obtained from the 1986 National Mortality Followback Survey. Results. When other variables were controlled for, suicide decedents were significantly more likely than injury decedents to have a history of cancer (odds ratio [OR] =51.94), moderate (OR= 29.37) or heavy (OR = 22.87) alcohol use, and mental or emotional disorder (OR- 10.91) and to be White (OR = 18.54) and male (OR - 9.12). Conclusions. The findings indicate that a history of cancer should be considered as a risk for suicide in the elderly.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:1997:87:3:434-437_6

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().