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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Racial differences in suicidality in an older urban population | | Author(s) | Carl I Cohen, Yolonda Coleman, Robert Yaffee |
| Journal title | The Gerontologist, vol 48, no 1, February 2008 |
| Pages | pp 71-78 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | White people ; Black people ; Attitude ; Suicide ; Urban areas ; Comparison ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Epidemiological data for older African American and Caucasians living an urban community were used to compare those factors associated with active or passive suicidal ideation in each racial group. The authors used 1990 census data for Brooklyn, New York and they attempted to interview all cognitively intact adults aged 55+ in randomly selected block groups, a sample comprising 214 White and 860 Blacks. George's social antecedent model was adapted to examine 19 independent variables; the dependent variable was based on lifetime history of active or passive suicidal ideation (hereafter suicidality). The sample was weighted by race and gender; and to control for sampling design effects, SUDAAN was used for data analysis. White reported higher prevalence than Blacks for current suicidality (5.8% vs 2.3%) and lifetime suicidality (14.8% vs 10.2%). None of the differences were significant. In logistic regression analysis conducted for each race, four variables were associated with suicidality for both races: higher depressive symptom scores; higher anxiety symptom scores; copes by using medications; and lower religiosity. Two variables were associated with suicidality only among Whites: higher use of spiritualists; and copes by keeping calm. One variable, greater use of doctors for mental health problems, was significant only among Blacks. There were no racial differences in the prevalence of suicidality. Virtually all the factors associated with suicidality are potentially ameliorable - by tackling anxiety and depression, and when appropriate, by encouraging various coping strategies or religiosity. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080819204 A |
| Classmark | TKA: TKE: DP: EV: RK: 48: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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