Suicide among older adults in Norway – a register-based study addressing sociodemographic factors, mental health and treatment pathways prior to suicide

Background: Suicide is a major public health problem with 650 deaths a year in Norway. Approximately 160 are 60 years and older and two out of three are male. Due to the demographic shift with an increasing aging population, both the absolute numbers and percentage of suicide in the age group will increase. Old age is accompanied with considerable social changes, including change in working status when entering retirement, increased risk of loss of a partner, loss of function in everyday life due to morbidity and mental illness is a major risk factor for suicide in all age groups. Research has shown that suicide victims older than 60 years had higher number of visits to their family doctor compared to younger prior to suicide, but a smaller proportion had been diagnosed with a mental health problem. At the same time, older adults had significantly less contact with mental health services prior to suicide compared to younger age groups. There might be need of different preventive measures for this group and to be able to elaborate this we need more knowledge on the population 60 years and older who have died by suicide.

Aims: the main aim of the project is to explore the social and mental health characteristics as well as contact with the primary- and specialist health care services prior to suicide in older adults. The goal is to increase the knowledge relevant for developing preventive measures for suicide among people 60 years and older.

Method: suicide is statistically a rare event, and large numbers of participants are needed to show significant results. Linkage of national health and administrative registers will be used to including Cause of Death Registry, The Central Population Registry, National Welfare Database, The Norwegian Patient Register and The Norwegian Registry for Primary Health Care.

Research group: the PhD project is part of the research project ”Treatment pathways for suicide victims and suicide bereaved” (TreatPath) at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPT).

Collaborators: the project is financed by Department of Old Age Psychiatry at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) and The Norwegian National Centre for Aging and Health. Additional collaborative partners are NIPT and University of Oslo (UiO).