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International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

Volume 26, Issue 9
Research Article

The prevalence and predictors of passive death wishes in Europe: a 2‐year follow‐up of the survey of health, ageing, and retirement in Europe

Liat Ayalon

Corresponding Author

E-mail address: ayalonl@mail.biu.ac.il

Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
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First published: 28 December 2010
https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.2626
Cited by: 5

Abstract

Objectives

This study evaluated regional variations (South, Centre, and North of Europe) in passive death wishes (wish to die) and predictors of passive death wishes, using a cross‐national longitudinal design.

Methods

The Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a cross national European survey of individuals over the age of 50 and their spouse of any age. This study relied on wave 1 and 2 of SHARE. Passive death wishes were evaluated using an item from the Euro‐D. A variety of clinical and sociodemographic variables were evaluated as potential predictors.

Results

The rate of passive death wishes was significantly lower in Northern Europe (4.6%) than in Southern (8.5%) and Central Europe (7.0%). Older adults, females, those reporting more depressive symptoms, more medical conditions, and lower levels of hope in wave 1 were more likely to report passive death wishes in wave 2, unrelated to geographic region. In contrast, passive death wishes reported in wave 1 were a stronger risk for passive death wishes in wave 2 for Northern Europeans than for Southern Europeans.

Conclusions

Despite notable geographic differences in the prevalence rate of passive death wishes, most predictors evaluated in the present study function similarly across the three European regions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Number of times cited according to CrossRef: 5

  • Erwin Stolz, Hannes Mayerl, Peter Gasser-Steiner and Wolfgang Freidl, Attitudes towards assisted suicide and euthanasia among care-dependent older adults (50+) in Austria: the role of socio-demographics, religiosity, physical illness, psychological distress, and social isolation, BMC Medical Ethics, 18, 1, (2017).
    Crossref
  • Erwin Stolz, Beat Fux, Hannes Mayerl, Éva Rásky and Wolfgang Freidl, Passive Suicide Ideation Among Older Adults in Europe: A Multilevel Regression Analysis of Individual and Societal Determinants in 12 Countries (SHARE), The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 10.1093/geronb/gbw041, 71, 5, (947-958), (2016).
    Crossref
  • K. Lukaschek, H. Engelhardt, J. Baumert and K.-H. Ladwig, No correlation between rates of suicidal ideation and completed suicides in Europe: Analysis of 49,008 participants (55+ years) based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), European Psychiatry, 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2015.07.009, 30, 7, (874-879), (2015).
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  • Laura A. Pratt and Debra J. Brody, Implications of two-stage depression screening for identifying persons with thoughts of self-harm, General Hospital Psychiatry, 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2013.09.007, 36, 1, (119-123), (2014).
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  • Mahboubeh Dadfar, David Lester and Mohammad Kazem Atef Vahid, Psychometric Characteristics of the Wish to Be Dead Scale (WDS) in Iranian Psychiatric Outpatients, Current Psychology, 10.1007/s12144-016-9527-y, (2016).
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