Prevalence and correlates of suicidal ideation among older adults attending primary care clinics in Wuhan, China: A multicenter cross-sectional study

Exploration of related factors of suicide ideation in hospitalized older adults

BACKGROUND

With the rapid aging of the population structure, and the suicide ideation rate also increasing year by year, the ratio of people over 65 to the total number of deaths is increasing yearly. The study provides a reference for researchers interested in older adults' care to explore SI further affecting older adults in the future and provide a reference for qualitative research methods or interventional measures.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to explore the influence of mental health status, life satisfaction, and depression status on suicidal ideation (SI) among hospitalized older adults.

METHODS

In a cross-sectional correlation study, taking inpatients over 65 years old in a regional teaching hospital in eastern Taiwan, and the BSRS-5 ≧ 5 points of the screening cases, a total of 228 older adults agree to conduct data analysis in this study. Mainly explore the influence of personal characteristics, mental health status, life satisfaction, and depressed mood on SI among the hospitalized older adults. The basic attributes of the cases used in the data, mental health status, cognitive function, quality of life, depression, and suicide ideation, the data obtained were statistically analyzed with SPSS 20/Windows, and the descriptive statistics were average, standard deviation, percentage, median, etc. In the part of inference statistics, independent sample t-test, single-factor analysis of variance, Pearson performance difference correlation, and logistic regression analysis were used to detect important predictors of SI.

RESULTS

Research results in (1) 89.5% of hospitalized older adults have a tendency to depression. 2.26.3% of the older adults had SI. (2) Here are significant differences in the scores of SI among hospitalized older adults in different economic status groups and marital status groups. (3) The age, marital status, and quality of life of the hospitalized older adults were negatively correlated with SI; economic status, self-conscious health, mental health, and depression were positively correlated with SI. (4) The results of the mental health status and SI is (r = .345, p < .001), higher the score on the BSRS-5 scale, the higher the SI. The correlation between the depression scale score (SDS-SF) and SI was (r = .150, p < .05), the higher the depression scale score, the higher the SI.

CONCLUSION

The results of the study found that there was a statistically significant correlation between SI in older adults and age, marital status, economic status, mental health, quality of life, and depression, and also showed that they might interact with each other; the older adults in BSRS-5, GDS-SF, quality of life scale scores have statistically significant differences as essential predictors of SI. The results of this study suggest that medical staff can use the BSRS-5 scale to quickly screen and evaluate the mental health status of older adults, hoping to detect early and provide preventive measures, thereby improving the quality of life of older adults.

Depressive disorders in older Chinese adults with essential hypertension: A classification tree analysis

Background

Although there has been accumulating evidence on the elevated risk of depression in hypertensive patients, data regarding depressive disorders in older adults with hypertension and the interplay between factors associated with depression in this population are very limited. Disentangling the mutual influences between factors may help illuminate the pathways involved in the pathogenesis of the comorbidity of depression in hypertension. This study investigated the prevalence of depressive disorders in older Chinese adults with hypertension and examined major correlates of depressive disorders and the interactions between correlates by using classification tree analysis (CTA).

Methods

In total, 374 older adults with essential hypertension were enrolled from seven urban and six rural primary care centers in Wuhan, China, and interviewed with the Chinese Mini-international Neuropsychiatric Interview 5.0. Family relationship and feelings of loneliness were assessed with standardized questions. A checklist was used to assess the presence of six major medical conditions: diabetes mellitus, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic gastric ulcer, and arthritis.

Results

The 1-month prevalence rate of depressive disorders was 25.7%. The CTA model identified four major correlates of depressive disorders: loneliness was the most salient, followed by arthritis, family relationship, and heart disease. There were statistically significant interactions between loneliness and arthritis, loneliness and family relationship, and arthritis and heart disease.

Conclusion

Over one out of every four older Chinese adults with hypertension suffer from depressive disorders. Collaborative multidisciplinary management services are needed to reduce the burden of depression in hypertensive older adults, which may include social work outreach services to promote family relationship, mental health services to relive loneliness, and primary care services to manage arthritis and heart disease.