Kim Jibum, Lee Yun-Suk, Lee Jinkook
a Department of Sociology , Sungkyunkwan University , Seoul , South Korea.
b Department of Urban Sociology , University of Seoul , Seoul , South Korea.
Aging Ment Health. 2016 Dec;20(12):1305-1313. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2015.1078280. Epub 2015 Aug 28.
This study examines how living arrangements are associated with suicidal ideation for older adults in South Korea, which has the highest suicide rate among OECD countries, and a particularly high suicide rate for older persons.
Analyzing a sample of 5795 women and 3758 men aged 65 and older from a nationwide representative cross-sectional data-set, we examined how many older adults think about suicide over a one-year period, why they think about suicide, and whether living arrangements are associated with suicidal ideation.
About 1 out of 12 respondents in our sample reported suicidal ideation. While women and men did not differ in the prevalence of suicidal ideation, women attributed their suicidal feelings to health problems, while men attributed theirs to economic difficulties. Logistic regression results indicated that living arrangements are associated with suicidal ideation for men but not women. Older men living with a spouse were less likely to have suicidal ideation than older men with other living arrangements (i.e., living alone, living with children without spouse, living with spouse, and others).
Our results highlight the importance of living arrangements to older men's suicidal ideation. We discuss gender differences in the implications of living arrangements to suicidal ideation within the context of Confucian culture.
本研究考察了居住安排与韩国老年人自杀意念之间的关联。韩国是经合组织国家中自杀率最高的国家，且老年人自杀率尤其高。
我们分析了来自全国代表性横断面数据集的5795名65岁及以上女性和3758名65岁及以上男性的样本，考察了在一年时间里有多少老年人会考虑自杀、他们为何会考虑自杀，以及居住安排是否与自杀意念有关。
我们样本中约每12名受访者中有1人报告有自杀意念。虽然男性和女性在自杀意念的患病率上没有差异，但女性将她们的自杀情绪归因于健康问题，而男性将其归因于经济困难。逻辑回归结果表明，居住安排与男性的自杀意念有关，而与女性无关。与有其他居住安排（即独居、与没有配偶的子女同住、与配偶同住等）的老年男性相比，与配偶同住的老年男性产生自杀意念的可能性较小。
我们的结果凸显了居住安排对老年男性自杀意念的重要性。我们在儒家文化背景下讨论了居住安排对自杀意念影响方面的性别差异。
