Suicide Rates, Social Capital, and Depressive Symptoms among Older Adults in Japan: An Ecological Study

Abstract

Depression is considered the primary risk factor for older people’s suicide. When considering suicide measures, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between depressive symptoms, social capital, and suicide rates. Therefore, we aimed to clarify the relationship between community-level social capital, depressive symptoms, and suicide rates among older people in Japan. We analyzed the data gathered from 63,026 men and 72,268 women aged 65 years and older, totaling 135,294 subjects in 81 municipalities with a population of over 100,000 participants in the 2013 Sixth Long-Term Care Needs Survey and another survey conducted by Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) in 2013 including the same question items as the survey in Japan. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the male suicide standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was positively correlated with depressive symptoms (B = 2.318, p = 0.002), and received emotional support (B = −2.622, p = 0.014) had a negative correlation with the male suicide SMR. In older males particularly, the received emotional support in the community was independently associated with the suicide rate. Therefore, fostering social support in a community could act as a countermeasure to suicide among older males in Japan.