Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb 28;15(3):422.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph15030422.

Suicidal Ideation among the Chinese Elderly and Its Correlates: A Comparison between the Rural and Urban Populations

Jianwen Wei  1 , Jie Zhang  2   3 , Yuping Deng  4 , Long Sun  5 , Ping Guo  6
Affiliations

Suicidal Ideation among the Chinese Elderly and Its Correlates: A Comparison between the Rural and Urban Populations

Jianwen Wei et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

As China is going through a profound aging process, the mental health of the elderly is becoming an issue. As in many other societies, the elderly in China is a population at high risk of suicide; Methods: Data for the study were taken from the Sample Survey of the Aged Population in Urban/Rural China (SSAPUR) accomplished in 2010 by the China Ministry of Civil Affairs. The valid sample for this study was composed of 18,683 individuals, including 9416 urban residents and 9267 rural residents both aged 60 or more years; Results: Logistic regression analyses showed that household income and expenditure, the number of children, chronic diseases, disability of daily living, depression, the frequency of visiting neighbors and having friends or relatives who can help or not had remarkable effects on the suicidal ideation among urban and rural old people. Gender, education, political affiliation, marital status and self-rated health status did not work on the dependent variable. However, some risk factors for suicidal ideation among the Chinese elderly were different between rural and urban regions; Conclusions: We should take different measures when facing the different groups of the elderly.

Keywords: depression; risk factors; suicidal ideation; the Chinese elderly; urban-rural comparison.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript and in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of suicidal ideation among Urban and rural elderly (%).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) 2010 Sixth National Population Census Data Gazette (No. 1) National Census Bureau; Beijing, China: 2011.
    1. Zhang J., Jing J., Wu X., Sun W., Wang C. A Sociological Analysis of the Decline in the Suicide Rate in China. Soc. Sci. China. 2011;2011:97–113.
    1. Li X., Xiao Z., Xiao S. Suicide among the elderly in mainland China. Psychogeriatrics. 2009;9:62–66. doi: 10.1111/j.1479-8301.2009.00269.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yip P.S., Liu K.Y., Hu J., Song X.M. Suicide rates in China during a decade of rapid social changes. Soc. Psychiatry Psychiatr. Epidemiol. 2005;40:792–798. doi: 10.1007/s00127-005-0952-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Crawford M.J., Nur U., McKenzie K., Tyrer P. Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts among Ethnic Minority Groups in England: Results of a National Household Survey. Psychol. Med. 2005;35:1369–1377. doi: 10.1017/S0033291705005556. - DOI - PubMed