Local community intervention through depression screening and group activity for elderly suicide prevention.
This study aims to evaluate outcomes of a community-based program to prevent suicide among the elderly (>or=65 years old) using a quasi-experimental design with two neighboring references. During 1999-2004, the program including depression screening and group activity was conducted by the public health nurses in the Minami district (population 1685) of Nagawa town, rural Japan. Pre-post changes in the risk of completing suicide were estimated by the incidence rate ratios (IRR). The risk for Minami's elderly females was reduced by 74% (age-adjusted IRR, 0.26; 90% CI, 0.07-0.98) more than the historical trend, while there was no change in the risk of Minami's males and nor in the male or female references. The local intervention using public health nursing would be effective against suicide for elderly females without diffusing to the surroundings.
Department of Social Welfare, Aomori University of Health and Welfare, Aomori, Japan. h_oyama@auhw.ac.jp
Hirofumi
H
Oyama
Yutaka
Y
Ono
Naoki
N
Watanabe
Eriko
E
Tanaka
Seijiro
S
Kudoh
Tomoe
T
Sakashita
Shinji
S
Sakamoto
Keiko
K
Neichi
Kyoko
K
Satoh
Kenji
K
Nakamura
Kimio
K
Yoshimura
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011637:Public Health Nursing; D012016:Reference Values; D012306:Risk; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology; D000092864:Suicide Prevention