@article{ref1,
title="Community-based suicide prevention through group activity for the elderly successfully reduced the high suicide rate for females",
journal="Psychiatry and the Clinical Neurosciences",
year="2005",
author="Kumagai, K. and Miura, Reiko and Takizawa, Tohru and Taguchi, Manabu and Takenoshita, Y. and Sakashita, Tomoe and Ono, Y. and Watanabe, Norimichi and Oyama, Hirofumi and Oyama, Hirofumi",
volume="59",
number="3",
pages="337-344",
abstract="Abstract: The lack of social support is the most common risk factor for late-life suicide. Few previous community-based interventions against the lack of social relationships reduced suicide. This study aims to evaluate outcomes of a community-based prevention program against suicide amongst the elderly in rural Japan. During 1995-2002, the program based on population strategy including group activity, psychoeducation and self-assessment of depression but no screening for depression, was implemented for elderly residents in Yuri town, Japan (5-year average population 6817; 5-year average suicide rate [>/=65 years old] 291.4/10(5)). Changes in the relative risk of suicide for individuals (>/=65 years old) before and after the 8-year implementation were estimated by the incidence rate ratio (IRR), using a quasi-experimental design with a neighboring reference, Chokai town, Japan (5-year average population 8136; 5-year average suicide rate [>/=65 years old] 216.5/10(5)). The risk of elderly females in Yuri completing suicide was reduced by 76% (age-adjusted IRR, 0.24; 95% CI, 0.10-0.58), while there was no change in the risks for Yuri's elderly males and both Chokai's elderly males and females. General loglinear analysis estimated a ratio of the female IRR in Yuri to that in its Akita prefecture of 0.35 (95% CI, 0.14-0.84), showing that the reduction of the risk in the intervention area was greater than a historical trend. A community-based suicide prevention through a group intervention designed to increase knowledge and to cultivate social relationships would be effective for elderly females but not males.",
language="",
issn="1323-1316",
doi="10.1111/j.1440-1819.2005.01379.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1819.2005.01379.x"
}