@article{ref1,
title="Late-life suicide: insight on motives and contributors derived from suicide notes",
journal="Journal of affective disorders",
year="2015",
author="Cheung, Gary and Merry, Sally and Sundram, Frederick",
volume="185",
number="",
pages="17-23",
abstract="OBJECTIVES: 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. <br><br>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. <br><br>FINDINGS: 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. <br><br>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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0165-0327",
doi="10.1016/j.jad.2015.06.035",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.06.035"
}