Life-Weariness, Wish to Die, Active Suicidal Ideation, and All-Cause Mortality in Population-Based Samples of Older Adults

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate potential differences in the strength of associations between different levels of passive and active suicidal ideation and all-cause mortality in older adults.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Population-based samples of older adults in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Participants: Older adults aged 79 and above who participated in any wave of the Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies or the Prospective Population Study of Women between 1986 and 2015 (n = 2,438; 1,737 women, 701 men; mean age 86.6).

Measurements: Most intense level of passive or active suicidal ideation during the past month: life-weariness, wish to die, or active suicidal ideation. The outcome was all-cause mortality over 3 years.

Results: During follow-up, 672 participants (27.6%) died. After adjustments for sex, age, and year of examination, participants who reported a wish to die (HR 2.01; 95% CI 1.55-2.60) as the most intense level of ideation, but not participants who reported life-weariness (HR 1.40; 95% CI 0.88-2.21) or active suicidal ideation (HR 1.10; 95% CI 0.69-1.76) were at increased risk of all-cause mortality. Reporting a wish to die remained associated with mortality in a fully adjusted model, including somatic conditions, dementia, depression, and loneliness (HR 1.70; 95% CI 1.27-2.26).

Conclusion: In older adults, reporting a wish to die appears to be more strongly associated with all-cause mortality than either life-weariness or active suicidal ideation.

Keywords: Suicidal ideation; all-cause mortality; epidemiology.