title: Late-life suicide: Insight on motives and contributors derived from suicide notes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aims of this study were: (i) to investigate the proportion of older people writing suicide notes in New Zealand; (ii) to compare the socio-demographic and clinical variables of older suicide note writers and non-note writers; and (iii) to perform a thematic analysis of the content of suicide notes.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Coronial Services provided records of all suicide cases aged 65 years and over (n=225) between July 2007 and December 2012. We were able to determine whether there was a suicide note written in 212 cases. The content of 39 coroners/medical examiners' excerpts and 5 suicide notes was available for thematic analysis using a general inductive approach.
  
  
  RESULTS
  88 (41.5%) older people left a suicide note. Logistic regression showed that female gender (OR=2.8, 95% CI=1.4-5.7, p=0.005) and Caucasian ethnicity (OR=13.7, 95% CI=1.7-111.0, p=0.014) are significantly associated with older people writing suicide notes. 33.3% of those who left a suicide note gave health-related reasons for their suicide and a significant proportion (73.3%) of them had underlying medical conditions. Another common theme is around people leaving specific instructions and wishes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Apart from gender and ethnicity, suicide note writers are similar to non-writers on broad socio-demographic and clinical factors. Suicide notes indicated free will in and reasons for their suicide and emotional/farewell messages to their loved ones. Many documented poor quality of life or physical illness but the progression of these factors to suicide in older people should be further researched.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland Mail Centre, Auckland 1142, New Zealand. Electronic address: g.cheung@auckland.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland Mail Centre, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Merry
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland Mail Centre, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Frederick
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sundram
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009520:New Zealand; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014956:Writing
keywords: Elderly; Older people; Physical illness; Suicide; Suicide note