Centre for Policy on Ageing



Suicide of older people in Asian societies — an international comparison
Author(s)	Bernard W K Lau, Colin Pritchard
Journal title	Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 20, no 4, December 2001
Pages	pp 196-203
Keywords	Suicide ; Comparison ; International ; Singapore ; China ; Hong Kong.
Annotation	An attempt is made to verify a systematic study of the Chinese tradition of venerating older people as perhaps leading to lower suicide rates compared to other countries. The ratio between suicide rates in the older population and total population were calculated and compared with those of 40 other countries. The world's highest male suicide rates were found in urban China, Singapore, rural China and Hong Kong. Urban China and Hong Kong had the worst female suicide ratios. The highest rate of suicide among females was in rural China, which also had the highest suicide rate among older people. These findings raise questions about the adequacy of support to older Asian people. It is surprising that high suicide rates are found in affluent societies such as Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Singapore. The possibility of this being the result of ageism is discussed. Country-specific research is needed to improve suicide prevention measures, especially for older people. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020228215 A
Classmark	EV: 48: 72: 7XD: 7DC: 7DR
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.