Suicidality-based prediction of suicide attempts in a community-dwelling elderly population: Results from the Osan Mental Health Survey

- Suicidality was associated with increased risk of suicide attempts in elderly.
- Exercise decreased the risk of suicidality to become persistent or recurrent.
- Depression and low education level increased the risk of incident suicidality.

BackgroundData on outcomes of suicidality in the community-dwelling elderly are scarce. We investigated the association of suicidality with the suicide attempts in a community-dwelling elderly cohort.MethodsIn the Osan Mental Health Survey, 848 randomly sampled elderly Koreans participated in the baseline evaluation, 623 completed 2-year follow-up evaluation and 32 died during the follow-up period. The survey was conducted between February 2010 and January 2013. We evaluated suicidality using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview suicidality module that includes both suicidal ideation and attempts.ResultsThe incidences of suicidality and suicide attempts were 70.7 and 13.1 per 1000 persons per year, respectively. Suicidality was associated with increased risk of suicide attempts (odds ratio (OR)=3.84, 95% CI=1.06-13.87). Two men with suicidality committed suicide by self-poisoning. Moderate to high intensity daily exercise decreased the risk of suicidality to become persistent or recurrent (OR=0.32, 95% CI=0.12-0.81). Low education level (OR=2.41, 95% CI=1.21-4.77) and depression (OR=3.02, 95% CI=1.65-5.53) were associated with risk of incident suicidality.LimitationsStudy sample was enrolled from a single city of Korea, and the size of the study sample was small.ConclusionsWe may reduce suicide attempts by screening for suicidality and implementing exercise programs in community-dwelling elderly people.