TY - JOUR
T1 - Local community intervention through depression screening and group activity for elderly suicide prevention
AU - Oyama, Hirofumi
AU - Ono, Yutaka
AU - Watanabe, Naoki
AU - Tanaka, Eriko
AU - Kudoh, Seijiro
AU - Sakashita, Tomoe
AU - Sakamoto, Shinji
AU - Neichi, Keiko
AU - Satoh, Kyoko
AU - Nakamura, Kenji
AU - Yoshimura, Kimio
PY - 2006/2
Y1 - 2006/2
N2 - This study aims to evaluate outcomes of a community-based program to prevent suicide among the elderly (≥65 years old) using a quasi-experimental design with two neighboring references. During 1999-2004, the program including depression screening and group activity was conducted by the public health nurses in the Minami district (population 1685) of Nagawa town, rural Japan. Pre-post changes in the risk of completing suicide were estimated by the incidence rate ratios (IRR). The risk for Minami's elderly females was reduced by 74% (age-adjusted IRR, 0.26; 90% CI, 0.07-0.98) more than the historical trend, while there was no change in the risk of Minami's males and nor in the male or female references. The local intervention using public health nursing would be effective against suicide for elderly females without diffusing to the surroundings.
AB - This study aims to evaluate outcomes of a community-based program to prevent suicide among the elderly (≥65 years old) using a quasi-experimental design with two neighboring references. During 1999-2004, the program including depression screening and group activity was conducted by the public health nurses in the Minami district (population 1685) of Nagawa town, rural Japan. Pre-post changes in the risk of completing suicide were estimated by the incidence rate ratios (IRR). The risk for Minami's elderly females was reduced by 74% (age-adjusted IRR, 0.26; 90% CI, 0.07-0.98) more than the historical trend, while there was no change in the risk of Minami's males and nor in the male or female references. The local intervention using public health nursing would be effective against suicide for elderly females without diffusing to the surroundings.
KW - Community-based intervention
KW - Depression screening
KW - Elderly
KW - Gender difference
KW - Suicide prevention
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645216143&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33645216143&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1440-1819.2006.01468.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1440-1819.2006.01468.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 16472368
AN - SCOPUS:33645216143
SN - 1323-1316
VL - 60
SP - 110
EP - 114
JO - Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences
JF - Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences
IS - 1
ER -