Suicide among Older People in Different European Welfare Regimes: Does Economic (in)Security Have Implications for Suicide Prevention?

Jing Wu, Ying Li and Margda Waern
Additional contact information
Jing Wu: Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
Ying Li: School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
Margda Waern: Center for Ageing and Health, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: Older adult suicide rates vary widely within Europe, and differential welfare policies might contribute to this. We studied variations in economic indicators and suicide rates of people 65+ across 28 European countries and examined the effects of these indicators on suicide rates, grouping countries according to their socio-political systems and welfare regimes. Suicide data was obtained from the WHO European Mortality Database. The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and the European Union Labour Force Survey provided data on economic indicators. Linear mixed models were applied. Suicide rates ranged from 4.22/100,000 (Cyprus) to 36.37/100,000 (Hungary). Material deprivation was related to elevated suicide rates in both genders in the pooled data set and in men but not women in the Continental and Island countries. Higher ratio of median income (65+/under 65) was associated with lower likelihood of suicide in women in the South-Eastern European countries. In the Nordic region, the 65+ employment rate was associated with a decreased likelihood of suicide in men. These factors to some extent show economic insecurity against older people, which influences the likelihood of suicide. Active labor market policies and inclusive social environment may contribute to suicide prevention in this age group.

Keywords: suicide; older people; economic insecurity; welfare regimes; suicide prevention; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7003/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7003/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7003-:d:833698

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().