University of Central Lancashire, Preston and West London Mental Health NHS Trust, London, UK.
Int J Psychiatry Clin Pract. 2009;13(4):259-64. doi: 10.3109/13651500902887656.
Background. Cultural factors may influence cross-national variations in elderly suicide rates. Methods. A cross-national study examining the relationship between elderly suicide rates and (i) mean household size and (ii) family structure was conducted with the "a priori" unidirectional hypothesis that larger mean household size and greater proportion of extended families may imply a greater number of people being potentially available within the household to provide support and respect to the elderly and to hold them in high esteem, and ultimately leading to reduction in elderly suicide rates. Data on elderly suicide rates was ascertained from the World Health Organisation website. Data on mean household size and family structure was ascertained from a report from the Inter-American Development Bank. Results. The main findings were elderly suicide rates in both sexes were significantly correlated with the mean household size (negative), percentage of extended households (negative; except in males aged 65-74 years where this approached significance) and percentage of single person households (positive). Conclusions. The impact of mean household size and family structure on elderly suicide rates may interact with and be modified and mediated through cultural factors. The contribution of cross-national differences in cultural factors on elderly suicide rates requires further study by formally measuring cultural factors with validated instruments.
文化因素可能会影响不同国家老年人自杀率的差异。方法：本研究采用跨国研究方法，考察了老年人自杀率与（i）家庭平均规模和（ii）家庭结构之间的关系。本研究提出了一个“单向假设”，即家庭平均规模越大，大家庭比例越高，可能意味着家庭中潜在的支持和尊重老年人的人数越多，对老年人的尊重程度越高，最终可能会降低老年人的自杀率。老年人自杀率的数据来自世界卫生组织的网站。家庭平均规模和家庭结构的数据来自美洲开发银行的一份报告。结果：主要发现是，无论男女，老年人自杀率都与家庭平均规模呈负相关（显著），与大家庭比例呈负相关（除 65-74 岁男性接近显著外），与单身家庭比例呈正相关。结论：家庭平均规模和家庭结构对老年人自杀率的影响可能会受到文化因素的相互作用、改变和中介。跨文化因素对老年人自杀率的影响需要通过使用经过验证的工具正式衡量文化因素来进一步研究。
