Wu Jing, Värnik Airi, Tooding Liina-Mai, Värnik Peeter, Kasearu Kairi
Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, Õie 39, 11615 Tallinn, Estonia.
Institute of Social Work, Tallinn University, Narva mnt 25, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia.
Eur J Ageing. 2013 Oct 23;11(2):131-140. doi: 10.1007/s10433-013-0297-1. eCollection 2014 Jun.
The aim of this study was to establish how different types of welfare states shape the context of the everyday life of older people by influencing their subjective well-being, which in turn might manifest itself in suicide rates. Twenty-two European countries studied were divided into Continental, Nordic, Island, Southern, and post-socialist countries, which were subdivided into Baltic, Slavic, and Central-Eastern groups based on their socio-political and welfare organization. Suicide rates, subjective well-being data, and objective well-being data were used as parameters of different welfare states and obtained from the World Health Organization European Mortality Database, European Social Survey, and Eurostat Database. This study revealed that the suicide rates of older people were the highest in the Baltic countries, while in the Island group, the suicide rate was the lowest. The suicide rate ratios between the age groups 65+ and 0-64 were above 1 (from 1.2 to 2.5), except for the group of the Island countries with a suicide rate ratio of 0.8. Among subjective well-being indicators, relatively high levels of life satisfaction and happiness were revealed in Continental, Nordic, and Island countries. Objective well-being indicators like old age pension, expenditure on old age, and social protection benefits in GDP were the highest in the Continental countries. The expected inverse relationship between subjective well-being indicators and suicide rates among older people was found across the 22 countries. We conclude that welfare states shape the context and exert influence on subjective well-being, and thus may lead to variations in risk of suicide at the individual level.
本研究的目的是确定不同类型的福利国家如何通过影响老年人的主观幸福感来塑造他们的日常生活环境，而主观幸福感反过来可能体现在自杀率上。所研究的22个欧洲国家分为大陆国家、北欧国家、岛国、南欧国家和后社会主义国家，后社会主义国家又根据其社会政治和福利组织细分为波罗的海、斯拉夫和中东欧群体。自杀率、主观幸福感数据和客观幸福感数据被用作不同福利国家的参数，并从世界卫生组织欧洲死亡率数据库、欧洲社会调查和欧盟统计局数据库中获取。本研究表明，老年人自杀率在波罗的海国家最高，而在岛国组中自杀率最低。65岁及以上年龄组与0 - 64岁年龄组的自杀率之比除了岛国组为0.8外，均高于1（从1.2到2.5）。在主观幸福感指标方面，大陆国家、北欧国家和岛国显示出相对较高的生活满意度和幸福感。像养老金、老年支出以及国内生产总值中的社会保护福利等客观幸福感指标在大陆国家最高。在这22个国家中发现了老年人主观幸福感指标与自杀率之间预期的负相关关系。我们得出结论，福利国家塑造了环境并对主观幸福感产生影响，从而可能导致个体层面自杀风险的差异。
