Table 1

Risk factors associated with current suicidal ideation in older general practice patients.

	Suicide ideators	Non-suicide ideators	P-value	OR (95% Cl)^a	Logistic regression model^b OR (95% Cl)
Mean age in years (SD)	70.5 (6.7)	72.3 (7.4)	0.09	–	–
Male	24/53	386/874	0.874	1.0 (0.6 to 1.9)	–
Older old age (>75 years)	14/53	330/874	0.097	0.6 (0.3 to 1.1)	–
Harmful or hazardous drinking (>two drinks a day)	2/41	17/596	0.461	1.7 (0.2 to 7.8)	–
Polypharmacy (>two medications per day)	38/53	571/860	0.427	1.3 (0.7 to 2.5)	–
Self-perceived poor health	9/53	37/862	<0.001	4.6 (1.8 to 10.4)	1.7 (0.6 to 4.7)
Use of sleeping tablets	31/50	224/851	<0.001	4.6 (2.4 to 8.7)	1.7 (0.8 to 3.4)
Currently smoking	5/52	33/850	0.046	2.6 (0.8 to 7.2)	1.9 (0.6 to 6.3)
Acknowledges feeling depressed	31/53	59/863	<0.001	19.2 (10.0 to 36.9)	7.7 (3.4 to 17.7)
CES-D≥16	41/53	177/863	<0.001	13.2 (6.6 to 28.2)	3.7 (1.5 to 8.9)
Previous suicide attempt	12/53	23/874	<0.001	10.8 (4.5 to 24.4)	7.4 (2.7 to 20.2)
Psychological presenting complaint	10/53	37/868	<0.001	5.2 (2.2 to 11.6)	1.7 (0.8 to 3.4)

↵a 95% CI = CI of the odds ratio.
↵b The explanatory model included all variables that discriminated between suicide ideators from non-ideators in the univariate analyses (α = 5%). CES–D = Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. OR = odds ratio. SD = standard deviation.