Local community intervention through depression screening and group activity for elderly suicide prevention

Authors: OYAMA, HIROFUMI; ONO, YUTAKA¹; WATANABE, NAOKI²; TANAKA, ERIKO³; KUDOH, SEIJIRO⁴; SAKASHITA, TOMOE⁵; SAKAMOTO, SHINJI⁶; NEICHI, KEIKO⁷; SATOH, KYOKO⁷; NAKAMURA, KENJI⁸; YOSHIMURA, KIMIO⁹

Source: Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Volume 60, Number 1, February 2006 , pp. 110-114(5)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

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Abstract:

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.

Keywords: community-based intervention; depression screening; elderly; gender difference; suicide prevention

Document Type: Short communication

DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1819.2006.01468.x

Affiliations: 1: Health Center, Keio University, Yokohama, 2: Aomori Prefecture Mental Health and Welfare Center, Aomori, 3: Working Life Conditions and Welfare Support Research Group, The Institute for Science of Labour, Kawasaki, 4: Department of Psychiatry, Seisyokai Minato Hospital, Hachinohe, 5: Faculty of Social Welfare, Iwate Prefectural University, Takizawa, 6: Department of Psychology, Nihon University, Tokyo, 7: Division of Health and Welfare, Nagawa Town Office, Nagawa, 8: Department of Human and Welfare for Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Tokyo, and 9: Center Information and Epidemiology Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan

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