School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
Department of Health Education and Information, Nanning Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanning, China.
Int Psychogeriatr. 2020 Apr;32(4):525-531. doi: 10.1017/S1041610219001315. Epub 2019 Sep 23.
Older adults represent the segment of population most exposed to the risk of suicide nearly everywhere in the world. Previous studies showed that hopelessness was an important risk factor for suicide.
This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the four-item Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS-4) in psychological autopsy study among Chinese rural elderly.
Two-stage stratified cluster sampling method was used to select research sites. Using case-control psychological autopsy study, face-to-face interviews were conducted to collected information.
A total of 242 elderly suicide deaths and 242 matched living comparisons were investigated, including 135 males and 107 females for each group. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) of the controls were 0.682-0.713. The median score of BHS-4 among suicides was significantly higher than that among controls. The corrected correlation coefficient between items and total score were 0.184-0.723. Cronbach's Alphas coefficient was 0.834. Only one common factor was precipitated by exploratory factor analysis and the cumulative variance contribution rates were 59.558% for suicides and 52.722% for living controls. The correlation coefficient between hopelessness and depression were 0.481 among suicide death and 0.617 among living controls.
The information provided by the informants through psychological autopsy method had high reliability to reflect the actual situation of suicides and controls. BHS-4 has good reliability and validity among Chinese rural elderly suicides. It is suitable for psychological autopsy study among Chinese rural elderly.
在世界上几乎所有地方，老年人都是最容易面临自杀风险的人群。既往研究表明，绝望是自杀的一个重要危险因素。
本研究旨在评估贝克绝望量表（BHS-4）四分量表在中国农村老年人心理解剖研究中的信度和效度。
采用两阶段分层聚类抽样方法选择研究地点。采用病例对照心理解剖研究，通过面对面访谈收集信息。
共调查了 242 例农村老年自杀死亡者和 242 例匹配的存活对照者，每组包括 135 名男性和 107 名女性。对照组的组内相关系数（ICC）为 0.682-0.713。自杀者的 BHS-4 中位数评分明显高于对照组。项目与总分的校正相关系数为 0.184-0.723。克朗巴赫 α系数为 0.834。探索性因子分析仅提取出一个共同因子，其对自杀者的累积方差贡献率为 59.558%，对存活对照者的累积方差贡献率为 52.722%。自杀死亡者和存活对照者中绝望与抑郁的相关系数分别为 0.481 和 0.617。
通过心理解剖方法由知情者提供的信息具有较高的可靠性，能够反映自杀者和对照者的实际情况。BHS-4 在中国农村老年自杀者中具有良好的信度和效度，适用于中国农村老年人群的心理解剖研究。
