Elderly suicide in Alberta: difference by gender

To determine differences by gender among elderly persons who commit suicide on demographic characteristics, place of suicide, suicide method, previous suicide behaviour, and precipitant stressor.

This study included completed suicides of individuals aged 55 years and over during 1984-1995 in Alberta (n = 920). Information was abstracted from suicide records of medical examiners.

Relative to elderly female suicides, elderly males who commit suicide characteristically use guns to commit suicide (43.8%), are single (12.5%), live in rural areas (46.7%), and have a lower frequency of previous suicide attempts (16.5%). Physical illness and financial difficulty as precipitant stressors of suicide are significantly more frequent among males (40.3% and 8.7% respectively) than females (29.9% and 1.8% respectively). Mental illness as a precipitant stressor is more common among females, 35.8% for women and 15.3% for men.

Lethal methods of suicide and physical illness and financial difficulty as precipitant stressors of suicide are more common among elderly males than females who commit suicide.