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No Correlation Between Rates of Suicidal Ideation and Completed Suicides in Europe: Analysis of 49,008 Participants (55+ Years) Based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

K. Lukaschek ,
H. Engelhardt ,
J. Baumert  and
K.-H. Ladwig
K. Lukaschek
Affiliation:
Institute of Epidemiology II, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Centre for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
H. Engelhardt
Affiliation:
University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany
J. Baumert
Affiliation:
Institute of Epidemiology II, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Centre for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
K.-H. Ladwig*
Affiliation:
Institute of Epidemiology II, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Centre for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, München, Germany
*
*Corresponding author at: Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institute of Epidemiology II, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany. Tel.: +49 89 3187 3623; fax: +49 89 3187 3667. E-mail address: ladwig@helmholtz-muenchen.de (K.-H. Ladwig).
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Abstract

Background:

Little is known about country-specific variations in suicidal ideation (SID) by sex and how they correspond with completed suicide rate. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess variations in SID prevalence rates by sex and its correlation to completed suicide rates across European countries.

Method:

SHARE is a cross-national European survey of individuals over the age of 50 and their spouse of any age. The present study relied on wave 4 conducted in 2010–2012 including 49,008 participants aged 55 to 104 years from 16 countries. SID was evaluated using a single item from the Euro-D. Data on completed suicide rates were taken from the WHO mortality database.

Results:

Of the study population (n = 49,008, 44.3% men, mean age 68.2 ± 9.1 years), a total of 4139 (8.5%, 95% CI 8.2–8.7) reported suicidal ideation within the last month. The women:men ratio in SID prevalence ranged from 1.30 in Estonia to 2.25 in Spain and Portugal. Regarding country-specific variation, the SID prevalence patterns of both men and women did not correspond to the completed suicide rates for males and females aged 55+ reported by the WHO (2013). Correlations were rather moderate in men (r = 0.45) and especially weak in women (r = 0.16).

Conclusion:

The study showed remarkable differences in SID prevalence by sex. The most exciting finding was that SID rates did not correspond with completed suicide rates in each country under investigation. However, the strength of these patterns substantially differs across countries. This unexpected finding need to be further evaluated.

Keywords

SuicideSuicidal ideationEpidemiologyAgingCross-national survey
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 30 , Issue 7 , October 2015 , pp. 874 - 879
Copyright
European Psychiatric Association 2015

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Footnotes

1

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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