A negative linear correlation for crude suicide rates of elderly persons with fertility rates was reported earlier but may mask a curvilinear relation. A re-analysis of those data from 81 countries as reported in the World Health Organization and United Nations data banks yielded a curvilinear (U-shaped curve) relation. Explanations require further study.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BridgesF. S.PearsonL. C. (2000) Use of the same and a longer time series to replicate David Lester's study of suicide and birth rates in Canada. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 98, 1090–1091.
2.
DurkheimE. (1992) Suicide and fertility: a study of moral statistics. European Journal of Population, 8, 175–197.
3.
LeenaarsA. A.LesterD. (1999) Domestic integration and suicide in the provinces of Canada. Crisis, 20, 59–63.
4.
LeenaarsA. A.YangB.LesterD. (1993) The effect of domestic and economic stress on suicide rates in Canada and the United States. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49, 918–921.
5.
LesterD. (1994a) Comparing the changing suicide rate in Singapore with the rates in England/Wales and the USA, 1950–1985. Singapore Medical Journal, 35, 490–491.
6.
LesterD. (1994b) Social integration and suicide in Puerto Rico and the United States. Puerto Rico Health Science Journal, 13, 39.
7.
LesterD. (1994C) The variation of suicide rates over time in Scandinavia. Scandinavian Journal of Social Medicine, 22, 160–161.
8.
LesterD. (1999) Correlates of suicide rates calculated in different ways: Denmark 1950–1985. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 89, 172.
9.
LesterD.GarcíaJ. M. G. (1995) Suicide and domestic integration in Spain: the effect of the source of suicide statistics. Psychological Reports, 77, 1218.
10.
LesterD.YangB. (1992) Fertility and suicide rates: a time series analysis in the United States. Journal of Biosocial Science, 24, 97–101.
11.
ShahA. K. (2008) Association of suicide rates in elderly persons with fertility rates. Psychological Reports, 102, 369–376.
12.
ShahA. K.BhatR.MacKenzieS.KoenC. (2007) Elderly suicide rates: cross-national comparisons and association with sex and elderly age-bands. Medicine, Science and the Law, 47, 244–252.
13.
ShahA. K.BhatR.MacKenzieS.KoenC. (2008) A cross-national study of the relationship between elderly suicide rates and life expectancy and markers of socioeconomic status and healthcare. International Psychogeriatrics, 20, 347–360.
14.
ShahA. K.DeT. (1998) Suicide and the elderly. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 2, 3–17.
15.
ShahA. K.PadayatchiM.DasK. (2008) The relationship between elderly suicide rates and elderly dependency ratios: a cross-national study using data from the WHO data bank. International Psychogeriatrics, 20, 594–604.
16.
StackS. (1980) Domestic integration and the rate of suicide: a comparative study. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 11, 249–260.
17.
TanM. S. (2007) Suicide in Micronesia: a systematic review. Primary Psychiatry, 14, 80–87.
18.
WiedenmannA.WeyererS. (1994) Testing Durkheim's theory of suicide: additional results from Germany. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 244, 284–286.