A Cross‐National Study of the Relationship Between Elderly Suicide Rates and Urbaninzation

Abstract

There is mixed evidence of a relationship between suicide rates in the general population and urbanization, and a paucity of studies examining this relationship in the elderly. A cross-national study with curve estimation regression model analysis, was undertaken to examine the a priori hypothesis that the relationship between elderly suicide rates and urbanization would be curvilinear and follow an inverted U-shaped curve. There was a curvilinear relationship between male suicide rates in both the elderly age-bands and the percentage of the population living in urban areas, but this was not observed in females. A three-stage sequential model was developed to explain the observed relationship between suicide rates in elderly males and urbanization. The relationship between suicide rates in elderly females and urbanization.