IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eujoag/v14y2017i2d10.1007_s10433-016-0397-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Care service use in 2 years preceding suicide among older adults: comparison with those who died a natural death and those who lived longer

Author

Listed:
  • Leena Forma

    (University of Tampere
    University of Tampere)

  • Mari Aaltonen

    (University of Tampere)

  • Jutta Pulkki

    (University of Tampere)

  • Jani Raitanen

    (University of Tampere
    The UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research)

  • Pekka Rissanen

    (University of Tampere
    University of Tampere)

  • Marja Jylhä

    (University of Tampere)

Abstract

The aim of the study is (1) to describe and analyse health and social service use and medicine purchases in the last 2 years of life among older adults who died by suicide and (2) to compare use and purchases between three groups: those who died by suicide, died a natural death or who lived longer. Nation-wide Finnish register data were used. The data consist of 316,639 decedents who died at the age of 70 years or older in 1998–2008 and 222,967 people who lived longer. Use of hospital, long-term care and home care, and the purchase of prescribed psychotropic medications were studied for the 2-year period. Binary logistic regression analyses were applied. 1118 older adults died by suicide (0.4 % of all deaths). A majority of older adults who died by suicide had multiple somatic diseases and mental disorders, especially depression, and had contact with health and social services in the last 2 years of life. At the same level of morbidity, use of hospital and long-term care was less common among those who died by suicide than among those who died of natural causes, but more common than among those who lived longer. Those who died by suicide received less home care than those who lived longer. A high proportion of suicides occurred in the first month following hospital discharge. Health and social services should improve support for older adults with chronic diseases and depression.

Suggested Citation

  • Leena Forma & Mari Aaltonen & Jutta Pulkki & Jani Raitanen & Pekka Rissanen & Marja Jylhä, 2017. "Care service use in 2 years preceding suicide among older adults: comparison with those who died a natural death and those who lived longer," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 143-153, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:14:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10433-016-0397-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-016-0397-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-016-0397-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10433-016-0397-9?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhou Yang & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns, 2003. "Longevity and Health Care Expenditures," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(1), pages 2-10.
    2. Polder, Johan J. & Barendregt, Jan J. & van Oers, Hans, 2006. "Health care costs in the last year of life--The Dutch experience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(7), pages 1720-1731, October.
    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. Vincenzo Atella & Valentina Conti, 2013. "The effect of age and time to death on health care expenditures: the Italian experience," CEIS Research Paper 267, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 12 Nov 2013.
    2. Norén, Anna, 2020. "Sick of my parents? Consequences of parental ill health on adult children," Working Paper Series 2020:1, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    3. Payne, Greg & Laporte, Audrey & Foot, David K. & Coyte, Peter C., 2009. "Temporal trends in the relative cost of dying: Evidence from Canada," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(2-3), pages 270-276, May.
    4. Ishizaki, Tatsuro & Imanaka, Yuichi & Oh, Eun-Hwan & Sekimoto, Miho & Hayashida, Kenshi & Kobuse, Hiroe, 2008. "Association between patient age and hospitalization resource use in a teaching hospital in Japan," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 20-30, July.
    5. Maciej Lis, 2015. "Red Herring in the Vistula River: Time-to-Death and Health Care Expenditure," IBS Working Papers 13/2015, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    6. Afschin Gandjour, 2009. "Aging diseases – do they prevent preventive health care from saving costs?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(3), pages 355-362, March.
    7. Maciej Lis, 2015. "What Drives the Increase in Health Care Costs with Age," IBS Working Papers 5/2015, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    8. Murphy, Michael & Martikainen, Pekka, 2013. "Use of hospital and long-term institutional care services in relation to proximity to death among older people in Finland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 39-47.
    9. Eric French & Elaine Kelly & Mariacristina Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones & Jeremy McCauley, 2016. "Medical Spending of the US Elderly," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 37, pages 717-747, September.
    10. Rolden, Herbert J.A. & van Bodegom, David & Westendorp, Rudi G.J., 2014. "Variation in the costs of dying and the role of different health services, socio-demographic characteristics, and preceding health care expenses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 110-117.
    11. Atella, Vincenzo & Conti, Valentina, 2014. "The effect of age and time to death on primary care costs: The Italian experience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 10-17.
    12. Chari, A.V. & Valli, Elsa, 2021. "The effect of subsidized childcare on the supply of informal care: Evidence from public kindergarten provision in the US," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    13. de Meijer, Claudine & Koopmanschap, Marc & d' Uva, Teresa Bago & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2011. "Determinants of long-term care spending: Age, time to death or disability?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 425-438, March.
    14. Pieter H. M. van Baal & Talitha L. Feenstra & Johan J. Polder & Rudolf T. Hoogenveen & Werner B. F. Brouwer, 2011. "Economic evaluation and the postponement of health care costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 432-445, April.
    15. Yang, Y., 2014. "Modeling health and mortality dynamics, and their effects on public finance," Other publications TiSEM c0acd15f-e715-46b1-b146-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Cockx, Lara & Francken, Nathalie, 2014. "Extending the concept of the resource curse: Natural resources and public spending on health," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 136-149.
    17. de Meijer C & Koopmanschap M & Bago d & Uva T & van Doorslaer E, 2009. "Time To Drop Time-To-Death? –Unravelling The Determinants of LTC Spending In The Netherlands," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/33, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    18. Astolfi, Roberto & Lorenzoni, Luca & Oderkirk, Jillian, 2012. "Informing policy makers about future health spending: A comparative analysis of forecasting methods in OECD countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(1), pages 1-10.
    19. Alessandra Cepparulo & Luisa Giuriato, 2022. "The residential healthcare for the elderly in Italy: some considerations for post-COVID-19 policies," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(4), pages 671-685, June.
    20. France Weaver & Sally C. Stearns & Edward C. Norton & William Spector, 2009. "Proximity to death and participation in the long‐term care market," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(8), pages 867-883, August.

    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:spr:eujoag:v:14:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10433-016-0397-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.