Backgrounds

: Socioeconomic factors influence suicide risk but a systematic understanding of the role of financial hardship is unclear. We examined whether financial hardship had cumulative or contemporaneous impacts on suicide ideation and any gender and age differences in a large Korean sample.

Methods

: Data of 67,728 observations from 14,321 individuals were extracted from seven waves of Korean Welfare Panel Study. The association of financial hardship at baseline and its change over two years with suicide ideation was investigated using generalized estimation equation to account for repeated measurements within an individual, adjusting for other socioeconomic factors.

Results

: Financial hardship was associated with suicide ideation but the magnitude of association varied across age and gender groups. Specifically, the impact of financial hardship was persistent over two years presenting a cumulative effect among men aged 50-64 years and ≥65 years; e.g., ORadjusted (adjusted odds ratio) = 3.87, 95 % CI = 2.71–5.54 for emergent hardship group vs ORadjusted = 4.22, 95 %CI = 3.00–5.93 for persistent group in those aged ≥65 years. Financial hardship increased the risk of suicide ideation incrementally with age, although the pattern was less clear among women.

Limitations

: Financial hardship was identified as having changing nature, though it was assumed to occur over two years.

Conclusion

: In general, financial hardship plays a role in amplifying suicide ideation in a contemporaneous way but also in a cumulative way, predominantly among late-middle-aged and elderly men. Monitoring and intervention for financial hardship would be a promising strategy for suicide prevention.

中文翻译：

---

经济困难和自杀意念：韩国小组研究中的年龄和性别差异

背景

：社会经济因素影响自杀风险，但对经济困难的作用的系统理解尚不清楚。我们研究了经济困难是否对大型韩国样本中的自杀意念以及任何性别和年龄差异产生累积或同期影响。

方法

：从韩国福利小组研究的七波中提取了来自 14,321 个人的 67,728 次观察数据。使用广义估计方程来研究基线时的经济困难及其在两年内的变化与自杀意念之间的关联，以解释个人内部的重复测量，并针对其他社会经济因素进行调整。

结果

：经济困难与自杀意念有关，但相关程度因年龄和性别而异。具体而言，经济困难的影响持续了两年，在 50-64 岁和 65 岁以上的男性中呈现出累积效应；例如，ORadjusted（调整后的优势比）= 3.87，95 % CI = 2.71–5.54（紧急困难组）vs ORadjusted = 4.22，95 %CI = 3.00–5.93（持续组）≥65 岁。经济困难会随着年龄的增长逐渐增加自杀意念的风险，尽管这种模式在女性中不太明显。

限制

：经济困难被确定为具有不断变化的性质，尽管它被假设发生在两年内。

结论

：一般来说，经济困难会以同期和累积的方式放大自杀意念，主要是在中晚期和老年男性中。监测和干预经济困难将是预防自杀的一个有前途的策略。