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Suicide among older people in relation to their subjective and objective well-being in different European regions

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to establish how different types of welfare states shape the context of the everyday life of older people by influencing their subjective well-being, which in turn might manifest itself in suicide rates. Twenty-two European countries studied were divided into Continental, Nordic, Island, Southern, and post-socialist countries, which were subdivided into Baltic, Slavic, and Central-Eastern groups based on their socio-political and welfare organization. Suicide rates, subjective well-being data, and objective well-being data were used as parameters of different welfare states and obtained from the World Health Organization European Mortality Database, European Social Survey, and Eurostat Database. This study revealed that the suicide rates of older people were the highest in the Baltic countries, while in the Island group, the suicide rate was the lowest. The suicide rate ratios between the age groups 65+ and 0–64 were above 1 (from 1.2 to 2.5), except for the group of the Island countries with a suicide rate ratio of 0.8. Among subjective well-being indicators, relatively high levels of life satisfaction and happiness were revealed in Continental, Nordic, and Island countries. Objective well-being indicators like old age pension, expenditure on old age, and social protection benefits in GDP were the highest in the Continental countries. The expected inverse relationship between subjective well-being indicators and suicide rates among older people was found across the 22 countries. We conclude that welfare states shape the context and exert influence on subjective well-being, and thus may lead to variations in risk of suicide at the individual level.

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Acknowledgments

We are especially grateful to the editor-in-chief for providing invaluable suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, Õie 39, 11615, Tallinn, Estonia

    Jing Wu, Airi Värnik & Peeter Värnik

  2. Institute of Social Work, Tallinn University, Narva mnt 25, 10120, Tallinn, Estonia

    Jing Wu & Airi Värnik

  3. Institute of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Tartu, Lossi 36-417, 51003, Tartu, Estonia

    Airi Värnik, Liina-Mai Tooding & Kairi Kasearu

  4. The Estonian Institute for Population Studies, Tallinn University, Narva mnt 25, 10120, Tallinn, Estonia

    Peeter Värnik

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  1. Jing Wu
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Correspondence to Jing Wu.

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Responsible editor: D. J. H. Deeg.

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Wu, J., Värnik, A., Tooding, LM. et al. Suicide among older people in relation to their subjective and objective well-being in different European regions. Eur J Ageing 11, 131–140 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-013-0297-1

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