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Suicide among older adults in Austria: A low- and high-risk population study based on linked individual-level register data
- Abstract
- Suicide is a tragedy at the individual level and a serious public health problem at the societal level. Although often overlooked, suicide rates in both Austria and other European countries increase rapidly with age, so that the highest suicide rates tend to show among the oldest old, and here, specifically among men. Austria has one of the highest suicide rates among the oldest old within the EU-27 countries. The high number of suicide deaths among older adults in Austria is not only a present-day concern, but also worrying against the background of population ageing, specifically the ageing of the large baby boomer generation, as this will likely lead to an increase in the absolute number of suicides among older adults in the decades ahead. The main research question of this project therefore is what risk factors can predict old age suicides in Austria, which can subsequently inform suicide prevention efforts. Against the background of newly available individual-level register data linkage in Austria within the Austrian Micro Data Center (AMDC), the aim of this project is to provide new and hitherto unavailable evidence on who among the older population is at an elevated risk of suicide death. Specifically, we seek to identify risk factors in two populations: (1) the whole general older population (low-risk setting) and (2) older psychiatric inpatients (high-risk setting). Risk factors will include demographic and socioeconomic factors, physical and mental health problems, disability and social disconnectedness. We will not only look at these factors in isolation, but also assess whether there are multiplicative effects for suicide risk, that is, when multiple risk factors co-occur at the same time, e.g. when the loss of spouse coincides with a cancer diagnosis. With this research project, we aim to better understand old age suicide in Austria, to inform suicide prevention efforts, and to illuminate the life circumstances of those older adults who see no other way but to (often violently) end their own lives.
- Keywords
- Alterssuizid
- Epidemiologie
- Prävention
- Riskikofaktoren
- Suizid
- Project Leader:
- Stolz Erwin
- Duration:
- 01.07.2024-30.06.2026
- Programme:
- ÖAW data:research:austria
- Type of Research
- basic research
- Further information: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/foerderungen/data-research-austria
- MUG Research Units
- Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology
- Project partners
-
Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention , Denmark
Contact person: Assoc. Prof. Annette Erlangsen (PhD); -
Landeskrankenhaus Graz, Austria
Contact person: Prim. Dr. Christian Jagsch; -
Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna, Austria
Contact person: Assoz. Prof. Dr. Dr. Carlos Watzka;