Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada.
Int Psychogeriatr. 2012 Feb;24(2):243-52. doi: 10.1017/S1041610211001591. Epub 2011 Aug 16.
Factors associated with the wish to die should be investigated in order to gain more opportunities for preventive interventions targeting older adults at risk for suicide. The goal of the research was to study the prevalence and associated factors of wishes to die in older adults living in the community using the data from a survey on the prevalence of mental disorders in this population.
With a representative sample of community living older adults aged 65 years and over (N = 2777), we compared individuals with the wish to die (n = 163) to those without the wish to die on the basis of the presence and severity of daily hassles, physical illness, and sleep quality.
Logistic regression revealed that when depression and sociodemographic variables were held constant, self-rated physical health, number of chronic illnesses, number and intensity of daily hassles, as well as sleep problems were significantly associated with the wish to die in older adults. Painful illnesses and daytime dysfunction due to sleep problems were also associated factors with the wish to die.
Since desire for death is the first step into the suicidal process, health professionals should seriously consider the important and unique contribution of these variables in order to have more opportunities for detection and intervention.
为了获得更多针对有自杀风险的老年人的预防干预机会，应该调查与想死的愿望相关的因素。本研究的目的是利用该人群精神障碍患病率调查的数据，研究社区中老年人想死的愿望的流行程度和相关因素。
对年龄在 65 岁及以上的社区生活老年人进行了有代表性的样本调查（N=2777），我们根据日常烦恼、身体疾病和睡眠质量的存在和严重程度，将有想死愿望的个体（n=163）与没有想死愿望的个体进行了比较。
Logistic 回归显示，当控制抑郁和社会人口变量时，自我评估的身体健康状况、慢性疾病数量、日常烦恼的数量和强度，以及睡眠问题与老年人想死的愿望显著相关。疼痛性疾病和因睡眠问题导致的日间功能障碍也是想死的相关因素。
由于想死的愿望是自杀过程的第一步，因此健康专业人员应该认真考虑这些变量的重要和独特贡献，以便有更多的机会进行检测和干预。
