Dataset Information

State Variation in Long-Term Care Availability, Regulation, and Cost and Suicide Mortality Among Older Adults in the United States: 2010-2015.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Residential long-term care (LTC) facilities may be key settings for the prevention of suicide among older adults; however, little is known about the relationship between statewide policies determining characteristics of LTC facilities and suicide mortality. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the association between state policies regarding availability, regulation, and cost of LTC and suicide mortality among adults aged 55 and older in the United States over a 5-year period.

Design

Longitudinal ecological study.

Setting and participants

LTC residents from 16 states reporting mortality data to the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) from 2010 to 2015.

Methods

We linked suicide data from the NVDRS and data sources on LTC services and regulations for 16 states. We applied a natural language-processing algorithm to identify suicide deaths related to LTC. We used fixed effect regression models to assess whether state variation in LTC characteristics is related to variation in the rate of suicide (both overall and related to LTC) among older adults.

Results

There were 25,040 suicides among those aged 55 and older reported to the NVDRS during the study period; 382 suicides were determined to be associated with LTC in some manner. After adjusting for state-level characteristics, greater average nursing home capacity was significantly associated with increase in the cumulative incidence of suicide related to LTC (β = 0.087, SE = 0.026, P < .01), but not overall suicide incidence. Neither cost nor regulation measures were significantly associated with state-level LTC-related suicide incidence.

Conclusions and implications

State-level variations in LTC facility capacity are related to variation in LTC-related suicide incidence among older adults. Given the challenges of preventing suicide among older adults through facility- or individual-level interventions, policies governing the features and provision of LTC services may therefore serve as a means for public health suicide prevention.

SUBMITTER: Lohman MC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8483567 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

State Variation in Long-Term Care Availability, Regulation, and Cost and Suicide Mortality Among Older Adults in the United States: 2010-2015.

Lohman Matthew C MC Ko Tomohiro M TM Rapp Ashley A Bennion Erica E Mezuk Briana B

Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 20210312 11

<h4>Objectives</h4>Residential long-term care (LTC) facilities may be key settings for the prevention of suicide among older adults; however, little is known about the relationship between statewide policies determining characteristics of LTC facilities and suicide mortality. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the association between state policies regarding availability, regulation, and cost of LTC and suicide mortality among adults aged 55 and older in the United States over a 5-ye ...[more]

PMID: 33722567

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Dataset Information

State Variation in Long-Term Care Availability, Regulation, and Cost and Suicide Mortality Among Older Adults in the United States: 2010-2015.

Objectives

Design

Setting and participants

Methods

Results

Conclusions and implications

Publications

State Variation in Long-Term Care Availability, Regulation, and Cost and Suicide Mortality Among Older Adults in the United States: 2010-2015.

Similar Datasets

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