title: Elderly suicide rates: a replication of cross-national comparisons and association with sex and elderly age-bands using five year suicide data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Suicide rates generally increase with age. A recent cross-national study, using one-year cross-sectional data on suicide rates identified regional and cross-national patterns for elderly suicide rates. However, findings from studies using one-year cross-sectional data on suicide rates may be open to bias because of random year on year fluctuations in elderly suicide rates.
  
  
  METHODS
  One-year average of suicide rates for both sexes in the age-bands 65-74 and 75+ years were calculated from data on suicide rates for five consecutive years ascertained from the World Health Organization. Cross-national variations were examined by segregating different countries into four quartiles of suicide rates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was wide cross-national variation in elderly suicide rates. Elderly suicide rates were the lowest in Caribbean and Arabic/Islamic countries, and the highest in central and eastern European, countries emerging from the former Soviet Union, some oriental and some west European countries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The regional and cross-national patterns for elderly suicide rates observed in this study were almost identical to a similar earlier study using one-year cross-sectional data on suicide rates. This suggests that the findings of both studies were accurate and robust, and potential explanations for the observed cross-national variations in elderly suicide rates requires further study.
authors.affiliation: University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom. ajit.shah@wlmht.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Ajit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shah
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*