Li G
Injury Prevention Center, Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 1995 Mar;40(6):825-8. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(94)00135-g.
To examine the hypothesis that the increased risk of suicide for the widowed elderly is dependent of sex, suicide mortality in a cohort of 6266 white married and 3486 white widowed persons aged 60 yr or older in 1963 was evaluated based on a 12-yr follow-up survey in Washington County, MD. Death rates from suicide were 28.7 per 100,000 person-yr for the married, and 40.4 for the widowed. An interaction effect was found between bereavement and sex: the risk of suicide for widowed men was 3.3 times as high as for married men (95% confidence interval, 1.3-8.3), but the risk of suicide for widowed women did not increase compared with that for married women (relative risk 1.0, 95% CI 0.3-3.1). Adjustment for social and behavioral factors did not change the interaction effect to any meaningful extent. The results suggest that widowed men should be one of the prior targets of suicide prevention and intervention programs for the elderly.
为检验鳏寡老人自杀风险增加与性别相关这一假设，我们基于对马里兰州华盛顿县的一项为期12年的随访调查，评估了1963年6266名60岁及以上白人已婚者和3486名白人鳏寡者队列中的自杀死亡率。已婚者的自杀死亡率为每10万人年28.7例，鳏寡者为40.4例。我们发现丧亲之痛与性别之间存在交互作用：丧偶男性的自杀风险是已婚男性的3.3倍（95%置信区间，1.3 - 8.3），但丧偶女性的自杀风险与已婚女性相比并未增加（相对风险1.0，95%置信区间0.3 - 3.1）。对社会和行为因素进行调整后，交互作用并未有任何显著变化。研究结果表明，丧偶男性应成为老年人自杀预防和干预项目的首要目标人群之一。
