IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v57y2011i3p277-283.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Elderly Dependency Ratios Associated With General Population Suicide Rates?

Author

Listed:
  • Ajit Shah

    (Ethnicity and Mental Health, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK, West London Mental Health NHS Trust, London, UK, ajit.shah@wlmht.nhs.uk)

Abstract

Background: The elderly population size is increasing worldwide due to falling birth rates and increasing life expectancy. It has been hypothesized that as the elderly dependency ratio (the ratio of those over the age of 65 years to those under 65) increases, there will be fewer younger people available to care for older people and this, in turn, will increase the burden on younger carers with increased levels of psychiatric morbidity leading to an increase in general population suicide rates. Methods: A cross-national study examining the relationship between elderly dependency ratios and general population suicide rates was conducted using data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations websites. Results: The main findings were of a significant and independent positive correlation between elderly dependency ratios and general population suicide rates in both genders. Conclusion: The contribution of cross-national differences in psychiatric morbidity in younger carers on general population suicide rates requires further study. The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in younger carers of older people should be examined by: (i) cross-national studies using standardized measures of psychiatric morbidity that are education-free, culture-fair and language-fair; and (ii) within-country longitudinal studies with changing elderly dependency ratios over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Ajit Shah, 2011. "Are Elderly Dependency Ratios Associated With General Population Suicide Rates?," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 57(3), pages 277-283, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:57:y:2011:i:3:p:277-283
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764009356839
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764009356839
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764009356839?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gunnell, David & Middleton, Nicos & Whitley, Elise & Dorling, Daniel & Frankel, Stephen, 2003. "Why are suicide rates rising in young men but falling in the elderly?--a time-series analysis of trends in England and Wales 1950-1998," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 595-611, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oliffe, John L. & Ogrodniczuk, John S. & Bottorff, Joan L. & Johnson, Joy L. & Hoyak, Kristy, 2012. "“You feel like you can’t live anymore”: Suicide from the perspectives of Canadian men who experience depression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 506-514.
    2. Jonathan Scourfield, 2005. "Suicidal Masculinities," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 10(2), pages 35-44, July.
    3. Shiner, Michael & Scourfield, Jonathan & Fincham, Ben & Langer, Susanne, 2009. "When things fall apart: Gender and suicide across the life-course," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 738-746, September.
    4. Robert Andersen & M. McIvor, 2013. "GINI Country Report: Growing Inequalities and their Impacts in Canada," GINI Country Reports canada, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    5. Moon-Doo Kim & Seong-Chul Hong & Sang-Yi Lee & Young-Sook Kwak & Chang-In Lee & Seung-Wook Hwang & Tae-Kyun Shin & Seung-Min Lee & Ji-Nam Shin, 2006. "Suicide Risk in Relation to Social Class: A National Register-Based Study of Adult Suicides in Korea, 1999–2001," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 52(2), pages 138-151, March.
    6. Tomáš Katrňák & Barbora Hubatková, 2022. "Does educational expansion decrease suicide rates in European countries? The compositional effect in educational stratification of suicides," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 923-947, June.
    7. Chang, Shu-Sen & Gunnell, David & Sterne, Jonathan A.C. & Lu, Tsung-Hsueh & Cheng, Andrew T.A., 2009. "Was the economic crisis 1997-1998 responsible for rising suicide rates in East/Southeast Asia? A time-trend analysis for Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1322-1331, April.
    8. Anders Barstad, 2008. "Explaining Changing Suicide Rates in Norway 1948–2004: The Role of Social Integration," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 47-64, May.
    9. Kim, Myoung-Hee & Jung-Choi, Kyunghee & Jun, Hee-Jin & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2010. "Socioeconomic inequalities in suicidal ideation, parasuicides, and completed suicides in South Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(8), pages 1254-1261, April.
    10. Theodoros Papaslanis & Vassilis Kontaxakis & Christos Christodoulou & George Konstantakopoulos & Maria-Irini Kontaxaki & George N Papadimitriou, 2016. "Suicide in Greece 1992–2012: A time-series analysis," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 62(5), pages 471-476, August.
    11. Ajit Shah, 2010. "The Relationship Between Elderly Suicide Rates and the Internet: a Cross-National Study," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(3), pages 214-219, May.
    12. Katolik, Aleksandra & Oswald, Andrew J., 2017. "Antidepressants for Economists and Business-School Researchers: An Introduction and Review," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 338, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    13. Katolik, Aleksandra & Oswald, Andrew J., 2017. "Antidepressants for Economists and Business-School Researchers: An Introduction and Review," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 71(4), pages 448-463.
    14. Julie Phillips, 2013. "Factors Associated With Temporal and Spatial Patterns in Suicide Rates Across U.S. States, 1976–2000," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 591-614, April.
    15. Chen, Ying-Yeh & Yip, Paul S.F. & Lee, Carmen & Fan, Hsiang-Fang & Fu, King-Wa, 2010. "Economic fluctuations and suicide: A comparison of Taiwan and Hong Kong," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2083-2090, December.
    16. Chen, Ying-Yeh & Chen, Mengni & Lui, Carrie S.M. & Yip, Paul S.F., 2017. "Female labour force participation and suicide rates in the world," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 61-67.
    17. Ajit Shah & Ritesh Bhandarkar & Gurleen Bhatia, 2010. "The Relationship Between General Population Suicide Rates and Mental Health Funding, Service Provision and National Policy: a Cross-National Study," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(4), pages 448-453, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:57:y:2011:i:3:p:277-283. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.