최연순, 김미지, 서애림, 김현옥, 박기수

경상대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실 및 건강과학연구원

Background: The study was performed to investigate effects
of depression and health status on several factors
of influencing suicidal ideation among living-alone elderly in
rural area. And we assessed if depressive symptom
mediates fully suicidal ideation among living-alone elderly in
the rural area.
Methods: The subjects of this study used the survey data of
elderly people living alone for the elderly mental
health promotion project at the city health center. In the
questionnaire, 200 people were interviewed by one of
the public health center staffs directly. We analyzed a four
step approach in which several logistic regression
analyses were conducted and significance of the coefficients
was examined at each step.
Results: The results from step 1 show that the total effect of
health status(frailty) was significantly related to suicidal
ideation(Exp(β)=2.198, P=0.042). In step 2, the direct effect
of health status on depression was significant(
Exp(β)=3.925, P<0.001) too. Step 3 analysis showed that
the effect of depression on suicidal ideation
was significant(Exp(β)=7.115, P=0.001). Step 4 showed that
after controlling for depression, health status was
not significant for suicidal ideation(P=0.322). Based on
analysis results, the finding supports that suicidal ideation
among living-alone elderly in the rural area was fully
mediated by depressive symptom.
Conclusions: Above findings imply that it is crucial to
decrease depression in order to control suicidal ideation
among living-alone elderly in rural area. To do that, early
diagnosis and developing programs to decrease elderly
depression and organizational approach according to
characteristics of areas and elderly circunstances
are needed.
Korean J Health Promot 2017;17(3):193-198
Keywords: Depression, Health status, Suicidal ideation,
Mediator