title: [Analysis of negative life events among 304 elderly suicide victims].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify the most common life events that occurred prior to suicide in elderly individuals and the relationship of these life events to depressive symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  A detailed study considering life events in the year prior to death, the presence of mental illness at the time of death and the level of depressive symptoms in the 2 weeks prior to death was undertaken with the family members and other associates of 304 persons at 55 years of age and older who died of suicide.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The three most common negative life events were acute or chronic physical illness or injury (59.2%), major changes in diet, sleeping or other daily routines (37.8%) and financial difficulties (34.5%). The severity of depressive symptoms was significantly greater among persons who had experienced these life events both for persons with or without definite mental illness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most elderly persons who died of suicide events had experienced multiple negative life events in the year prior to death and these life events were closely related to the severity of depressive symptoms at the time of death.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China.
authors.forename: Mai-geng
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Yan-ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Li-jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zheng-jing
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Gong-huan
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002681:China; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*