They are succeeding at alarming rates; the suicides among people 65 or older ballooned to 4,378 in 2010, from 1,161 in 2000.
The are absolute counts, not rates. The male 65+ population went up 70% in the same period, and the 75+ subgroup doubled [1]. This explains away much of the increase (c.f. generic statistics in [2]). And at the same time:
The number of suicides among other adults and teenagers also surged... (no numbers)
Is it even clear the age-normalized suicide rate increased at all among the elderly, relative to the general population? I don't think the journalist checked.
edit: BBC says Korea's general-population suicide "more than doubled" over the same period [3]. So the 65+ suicide rate is almost completely explained by the null hypothesis. The count of 65+ suicides went up by 3.77x; the male 65+ population increased by 1.68x, and the general population suicide rate by >2.0x, which together is a factor of 3.36x. That leaves a <12% increase in [65+ suicide rate]/[general population suicide rate] (I'm still ignoring (rare [2]) female suicides). In a better analysis this might completely disappear. E.g. the 75+ subgroup outgrew the 65+ subgroup and they are much more suicidal [2], but I don't know how much more.
Also, it seemed odd not to compare to suicide rates in other countries - was it low before and typical now? Or typical before and high now? We can't tell from the article.
There might be substance in the topic, but the numbers presented don't support it.
They are succeeding at alarming rates; the suicides among people 65 or older ballooned to 4,378 in 2010, from 1,161 in 2000.
The are absolute counts, not rates. The male 65+ population went up 70% in the same period, and the 75+ subgroup doubled [1]. This explains away much of the increase (c.f. generic statistics in [2]). And at the same time:
The number of suicides among other adults and teenagers also surged... (no numbers)
Is it even clear the age-normalized suicide rate increased at all among the elderly, relative to the general population? I don't think the journalist checked.
edit: BBC says Korea's general-population suicide "more than doubled" over the same period [3]. So the 65+ suicide rate is almost completely explained by the null hypothesis. The count of 65+ suicides went up by 3.77x; the male 65+ population increased by 1.68x, and the general population suicide rate by >2.0x, which together is a factor of 3.36x. That leaves a <12% increase in [65+ suicide rate]/[general population suicide rate] (I'm still ignoring (rare [2]) female suicides). In a better analysis this might completely disappear. E.g. the 75+ subgroup outgrew the 65+ subgroup and they are much more suicidal [2], but I don't know how much more.
[1] http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/regi...
[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5236508
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14784776