• Proceedings of the Population Association of Korea Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.299-316
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• 2007

이 연구는 가족의 불안정성이 노인자살에 미치는 영향을 확인하고 시간의 흐름에 따른 변화추이를 살펴보기 위한 것이다. 이를 위해 입지조건 가족불안정성 사회경제적 수준을 설명변수로 인과구조의 분석모형을 만들었다. 자료는 1995년, 2000년, 2005년의 사망원인통계와 시 군 구 지역단위통계를 활용하였다. 이혼을 통해 가족불안정성을 측정하였으며, 이혼이 미치는 영향을 자세히 살피기 위해 노인과 20-50대, 그리고 남자노인과 여자노인자살률을 분석에 같이 사용하였다. 이 논문은 GIS를 이용하여 세시점의 자살률을 제시하였고, 입지조건 및 이혼에 따른 노인자살률의 차이를 검증하기 위해 분산분석과 회귀분석을 실시하였다 일부 지역에서만 높은 수치를 보이던 노인자살률이 시간의 흐름에 따라 높아져, 최근에는 남서해안을 제외한 대분 지역에서 높게 나타나고 있다 또한 노인의 자살이 높은 지역이 대도시에서 농촌지역으로 변화해 농촌지역에서의 노인자살이 심각한 것을 알 수 있다. 경제위기를 겪으면서 급증한 이혼은 가족불안정성으로 이어져 자살률을 높이는 효과를 보여준다. 노인자살률과 20-50대 자살률에 미치는 이혼의 효과는 동일하게 나타나고 있으며. 노인의 경우 더 강한 정적인 영향을 미치고 있다. 이혼이 자살에 미치는 효과는 성별에 따른 차이를 보여주는데, 여자노인보다 남자노인자살률을 높이는 방향으로 작용하고 있다 이러한 결과들을 보면 가족불안정성이 특히 남자노인자살에 가장 큰 영향을 미치고 있음을 알 수 있다.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.309-317
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• 2011

Research on elderly suicide has increased since 2000. It indicates that elderly suicide is receiving a great attention as a part of elderly problems, and policy efforts are needed. However, most of existing research on elderly suicide focused on factors of elderly suicide. Therefore discussion about suicidal prevention measures is staying on general and suggestive level. As a result, this study is trying to seek effective prevention strategies of elderly suicide through systematic analysis of suicidal factors and sporadic policy proposals presented in existing research. To achieve this, the relevant research papers among academic journals registered with Korea Research Foundation are analyzed. According to the results, while the ordinary elderly tended to require macro level of intervention, the potential-risky elderly were inclined to need all of micro and moderate level of prevention efforts. Above all, secondary prevention must be more emphasized in moderate level. In the future direction of research, based on prevention strategies as stated above, it is recommended to entail discussion of what kind of a specific program and policy should be invented and how it should be operated.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.71-84
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• 2013

Objectives: As suicide among the elderly population has been a critical issue in Korea, this study aimed to evaluate correlations of suicidal ideation with protective and risk factors among elderly who reside in a rural community. Methods: A total of 157 elders from Gyeongju city, who had attended senior centers in, were enrolled to answer questionnaires including the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form-Korea and the Scale for Suicidal Ideation. Data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0K for Windows, and included t-test, Pearson correlation, and a three-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Results: Using the hierarchical regression analyses for predicting the elderly's suicidal ideation, male gender and social group variables were entered as predictors in the first step(adjusted $R^2$=0.107, P<0.05). Pain, ADLs, family support variables were not entered in the second step. Depression variable was the only predictor in the third step(adjusted $R^2$=0.384, P<0.001). Conclusions: Although this study confirmed the impact of depression on the suicidal ideation, elderly with risk factors including male gender and social isolation should receive a special attention from community health care professionals.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.291-298
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• 2017

This study is to examine the status and trends of regional elderly group(pre-elderly and elderly segment)'s suicide rates and socio-economic factors, to analyze the relevance of suicide rates and socio-economic factors, and to understand differential factors of elderly group's suicide rates between metropolitan areas and small-medium sized areas. For this, analysis on relevance between socio-economic factors and elderly group's suicide rates has been done using regional statistical data for the past ten years(2006~2015) by National Statistical office. According to research findings, Socio-economic factors such as welfare budget ratio, divorce rates, economic activity rates, and financial independent rates have shown different effects on elderly group's suicide rates by age range and regional characteristics. Based on these analyses, this study suggested policy tasks for alleviating suicide rates of elderly group.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.236-245
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• 2013

This study analyzed the relationship between elderly suicide rates and socio-economic factors from the macroscopic perspectives. As certain theoretical background of elderly suicide, sociological and economic perspectives are applied. The economic factors of elderly suicide rates consisted of economic growth and unemployment rate, economic activity rate of the aged, and relative poverty rate (income inequality rate). The sociological factors included social welfare spending, divorce rate, growth rate of population aging, and elderly dependency ratio. According to research findings, first, the more economic activity of the aged is low, the more elderly suicide rate is high. Second, the more social welfare spending rate goes flat, the more elderly suicide rate is growing. Third, the more relative poverty rate (income inequality), increasing population aging rate, and elderly dependency ratio are high, elderly suicide rate goes high at the same time. Finally, this study proposed several socio-economic policy alternatives for preventing continuous growth of Korean elderly suicide rate.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.100-106
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• 2015

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to find out the clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of elderly suicide attempters visiting emergency room, compared to non-elderly adult suicide attempters. Methods : We enrolled suicidal attempters who were treated in the emergency room of the Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital between June 2013 and July 2015. We conducted a retrospective chart review of 336 suicidal attempters, and compared sociodemographic and clinical characteristics between elderly and non-elderly adult suicide attempters. Results : During the study period, 336 patients visited the emergency room of the medical center after suicide attempts. Among these, there were 71 elderly(21.2%) and 265 non-elderly adult(79.8%) suicide attempters. The suicidal methods among elderly were poisoning(73.3%), hanging(19.7%), cutting(5.6%), and jumping(1.4%). Those in non-elderly were poisoning(73.2%), cutting(17.0%), hanging(6.8%), and jumping(3.0%). The elderly suicide attempters had the tendency to choose more dangerous methods and showed higher lethality compared to adult suicide attempters(20.6% vs. 1.9%, ${\chi}^2=34.565$, p<0.05). On the other hand, premorbid psychiatric disorders had been more commonly diagnosed in non-elderly adults than elderly suicide attempters(49.8% vs. 26.8%, ${\chi}^2=12.024$, p<0.05). Conclusions : The results provide evidence of different sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of elderly suicide attempters compared to non-elderly ones visiting the emergency room. Through this study, it can be seen that the suicide attempt in the elderly tends to be severer than in the non-elderly, but only a small portion of them seek for help from psychiatric intervention. Further study is required to provide effective suicide prevention programs for elderly population.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.215-224
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• 2014

It is hardly surprising for the current elder generation to choose extreme measure, that is to commit suicide, because of various social or health problems caused by financial difficulties and diseases, for neither individuals nor the nation had not prepared for their later lives. Therefore, the number of elder suicide is rapidly increasing, so that it is becoming a big social issue. Research in various fields related to elderly suicide has been done due to recent huge interest, but most of them focused on microscopic factors and it is likely that most are in national level or individual level, so research about elderly suicide by regional areas is insufficient. Due to the nature of Korean administration system which is operated by each local government, study on elderly suicide by regional areas is acutely required. The purpose of this study is to draw policy suggestions of preventing suicide by analyzing current state of suicide rates in terms of sex(male elder vs female elder) and age(young old vs old old) in each 16 regions for 9years(from 2003 to 2011) and then analyzing interrelationships between the suicide rates and socio-economic factors.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.1427-1444
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of the suicide ideation, plan and attempt and to examine factors affecting the suicide attempt of the elderly. For these purposes, 1,110 elderly in Chonbuk province were interviewed using structured questionaire. Logistic regression analyses were used to test the association among factors. Major finding of this study are as follow : First, the prevalence of the suicide ideation, plan and attempt was 20.2%, 5.7%, 3.6%. Second, factors for suicide attempt were male sex, the living alone aged, loss of role as a worker, emotional abuse and neglect from family. On the basis of these results, implications for policy and practice are suggested for prevention the suicide of the elderly.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.231-242
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to analyze the personal factors affecting the ideation of suicide to identify the risk factors of suicide and to provide basic data for suicide prevention. The study subjects were 260 elderly people aged 65 or older who use the elderly general welfare center, the elderly classroom, and the senior club living in Jecheon City. The results of this study showed that personal factors affecting the idea of suicide in the elderly were significant in psychological factors such as stress, depression and loneliness. This means that the higher the stress, depression, and loneliness, the higher the elderly's suicide thought. In addition, the most influential factors in the idea of suicide of the elderly were stress, followed by loneliness and depression. Based on these findings, first, psychological treatment and prevention programs are needed to prevent suicide in the elderly. Second, it is necessary to expand the mental health support system, education and service for the elderly. Third, it is necessary to develop and disseminate stress coping, easing and arbitration programs.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.167-187
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• 2000

The rates and numbers of elderly suicide in Korea have been increased during 1985-1998. This indicates the seriousness of the problems which the elderly are faced with. So many late-life problems may push older people across the edges. Those in unbearable situations may call out fur helps, they may try to cope with various ways, or they may commit suicides. Because it is widely believed that suicide among the elderly can be understood as a personal solution or alternative to late-life problems in old age, the elderly\`s suicides seem to be an appropriate indicator in estimating seriousness of late-life problems. A comparison of the history of suicide research with other populations shows that the several late-life problems have been found with placing an individual elder at risks for increasing suicidal behaviors Research has identified such problems as financial insecurity, retirement, loss of social roles, physical illness, lack of social supports, and loneliness as the problems that increase the incidence of suicidal behavior. Though it is difficult far us to explain and understand the phenomenon of the elderly\`s suicide because of its complexity, we need to ascertain problems and social conditions behind suicides and also to prepare for some appropriate policy-tasks in light of social welfare for the aged, through examining the phenomenon. For explaining the elderly\`s suicide, the theoretical orientations are based on sociological perspectives in the paper. From the standpoints of social integration theory and exchange theory, this study is to examine the relationship between late-life problems and suicide. These two may have been fruitfully employed in conjunction with each other. Finally, this study would identify urgent late-life problems related with the elderly\`s suicide and suggest the relevant policies for Korean elders. Sometime in the near future, the government should be required to provide social welfare programs for the elderly, particularly for those at risk for increasing suicidal behaviors.