Elderly Suicide in Western Europe 1975–1989: A Different Approach to Durkheim's Theory of Political Integration

1996 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Fernquist

Using data on attitudes to measure political integration, it was found that political integration and suicide are negatively associated for the elderly in nine western European countries from 1975 to 1989. Also associated with elderly suicide are the divorce rate and deaths due to cirrhosis of the liver. Religious book production, however, was not found to be associated with suicide in the normative manner. Reasons for these associations are discussed.

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke Liem ◽  
Karoliina Suonpää ◽  
Martti Lehti ◽  
Janne Kivivuori ◽  
Sven Granath ◽  
...  

This study provides an overview of homicide clearance in four West European countries: Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Using data from the European Homicide Monitor, employing similar definitions and uniform coding schemes, this study allowed for unique cross-country comparisons in factors influencing differences in homicide clearance rates. Findings based on homicides occurring in the period 2009–14 revealed overall low homicide rates in all countries, with a wide variety in homicide clearance rates, ranging from 77 percent in the Netherlands to 98 percent in Finland. Results further showed that both event-based as well as victim-based characteristics significantly influenced the likelihood of homicide clearance, suggesting that homicide clearance rates can, for a large part, be attributed to the prevalent types of homicide in each of these European countries.


1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Sartorius

Recent major political changes in Eastern European countries might have affected their suicide rates. For this article, suicide statistics available to the World Health Organization were used to compare data from eight Eastern European countries to those from seven countries in Northern or Western Europe. Comparisons were made between 1987 and 1991/92 data using total suicide rates for each country, rates by gender, and rates for the elderly (age 75 and older). The total rates indicated an increase in suicide in Eastern European countries and a decrease in other European countries. The ratio of male-to-female suicides in the Eastern European countries increased during this time as well, more than in other European countries. Among those over the age of 75, however, rates of suicide in Eastern European countries decreased; this pattern was less clear in the European countries chosen for comparison. The article discusses the role of economic, cultural, and health service factors affecting these trends.


2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1337-1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andriy Yur`yev ◽  
Lauri Leppik ◽  
Liina-Mai Tooding ◽  
Merike Sisask ◽  
Peeter Värnik ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBackground: National attitudes towards the elderly and their association with elderly suicide mortality in 26 European countries were assessed, and Eastern and Western European countries compared.Methods: For each country, mean age-adjusted, gender-specific elderly suicide rates in the last five years for which data had been available were obtained from the WHO European Mortality Database. Questions about citizens’ attitudes towards the elderly were taken from the European Social Survey. Correlations between attitudes and suicide rates were analyzed using Pearson's test. Differences between mean scores for Western and Eastern European attitudes were calculated, and data on labor-market exit ages were obtained from the EUROSTAT database.Results: Perception of the elderly as having higher status, recognition of their economic contribution and higher moral standards, and friendly feelings towards and admiration of them are inversely correlated with suicide mortality. Suicide rates are lower in countries where the elderly live with their families more often. Elderly suicide mortality and labor-market exit age are inversely correlated. In Eastern European countries, elderly people's status and economic contribution are seen as less important. Western Europeans regard the elderly with more admiration, consider them more friendly and more often have elderly relatives in the family. The data also show gender differences.Conclusions: Society's attitudes influence elderly suicide mortality; attitudes towards the elderly are more favorable among Western European citizens; and extended labor-market inclusion of the elderly is a suicide-protective factor.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311985882
Author(s):  
Marta Kołczyńska

This figure describes the distance from meritocracy in 36 European countries between 2002 and 2017. Following Krauze and Slomczynski, the author defines meritocratic allocation of individuals by education to occupational status groups as a situation when more educated persons do not have jobs with lower status than less educated persons. Using data from the European Social Survey rounds 1 to 8, for each country-round, the author identifies the theoretical meritocratic joint distribution of education and occupational status, as well as the theoretical distribution under statistical independence, and measures the distance of empirical distributions to these two ideal situations. The author finds that the distance to meritocracy varies substantially across European countries, with some countries being closer to allocation under independence than to meritocratic allocation. In terms of cross-country differences, the distance to meritocracy is smaller in postcommunist countries than in Western Europe, with some convergence observable over time.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Dominik Wojcik ◽  
Aleksandra Cislak ◽  
Peter Schmidt

The left-right political auto-identification has been used widely in the socio-political research for interpreting and organizing political attitudes and opinions. In this paper we analyse whether the meaning of the left-right orientation is the same in Eastern and Western Europe after the transformation in 1989. Using data from two big European survey programmes – European Social Survey & European Values Study – we show that while citizens’ support for economic liberalism is positively related to their left-right political auto-identification, citizens’ support for cultural liberalism is negatively related to it. Importantly, however, we also found evidence for the regional diversity hypothesis, which shows this pattern was more prominent among the citizens of Western European countries than among the citizens of Eastern European countries. Presented results confirm the specificity of Eastern Europe when it comes to relations between political auto-identification and other beliefs linked to it traditionally and imply that the concept of left-right political auto-identification cannot be transferred mechanically between Eastern and Western Europe.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Czarnek ◽  
Małgorzata Kossowska

In this study, we investigate the relationship between values and political beliefs and how it varies as a function of cultural context and time. In particular, we analyzed the effects of Conservation vs. Openness to change and Self-transcendence vs. Self-enhancement for cultural and economic political beliefs using data from nationally representative samples of citizens from 34 European countries from eight rounds of the European Social Survey (data spans the 2002–2016 period). We found that the effects of values on political beliefs are moderated by the Western vs. Eastern cultural context and that there is a modest round-to-round variation in the effects of values on beliefs. The relationship between Openness and cultural beliefs was negative and largely consistent across the Western and Eastern countries. Similarly, the effects of Self-enhancement were positive across these Western and Eastern countries. In contrast, the effects of Openness on economic beliefs were positive for the Eastern countries but largely weak and inconsistent for the Western countries. Finally, the effects of Self-enhancement on cultural beliefs are weak for both cultural contexts.


Author(s):  
Larysa Kovryk-Tokar

Every nation is quite diverse in terms of his historical destiny, spiritual priorities, and cultural heritage. However, voluntary European integration, which is the final aim of political integration that began in the second half of the twentieth century from Western Europe, provided for an availability of large number of characteristics in common in political cultures of their societies. Therefore, Ukraine needs to find some common determinants that can create inextricable relationship between the European Community and Ukraine. Although Ukrainian culture is an intercultural weave of two East macrocivilizations, according to the author, Ukraine tends to Western-style society with its openness, democracy, tolerance, which constitute the basic values of Europeans. Keywords: Identity, collective identity, European values, European integration


Author(s):  
Michael Anderson ◽  
Corinne Roughley

The principal reported causes of death have changed dramatically since the 1860s, though changes in categorization of causes and improved diagnosis make it difficult to be precise about timings. Diseases particularly affecting children such as measles and whooping cough largely disappeared as killers by the 1950s. Deaths particularly linked to unclean environments and poor sanitary infrastructure also declined, though some can kill babies and the elderly even today. Pulmonary tuberculosis and bronchitis were eventually largely controlled. Reported cancer, stroke, and heart disease mortality showed upward trends well into the second half of the twentieth century, though some of this was linked to diagnostic improvement. Both fell in the last decades of our period, but Scotland still had among the highest rates in Western Europe. Deaths from accidents and drowning saw significant falls since World War Two but, especially in the past 25 years, suicide, and alcohol and drug-related deaths rose.


Author(s):  
Sergio Martini ◽  
Mattia Guidi ◽  
Francesco Olmastroni ◽  
Linda Basile ◽  
Rossella Borri ◽  
...  

Abstract Innumeracy, that is, the inability to deal with numbers and provide correct estimates about political issues, is reported to be widespread among the public. Yet, despite the recognition that a conspiracy mindset is an increasingly common phenomenon in Western democracies, this has not been considered as a potential correlate of innumeracy. Using data from an online sample of respondents across 10 European countries, we show that those with a higher propensity to hold a conspiracy worldview tend to overestimate the actual share of the immigrant population living in their own country. This association holds true when accounting for country heterogeneity and other cognitive, affective and socio-demographic factors. Employing a comparative design and refined measurements, the article contributes to our understanding of how a conspiracy mentality may influence perceptions of relevant political facts, questioning basic processes of democratic accountability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 161-161
Author(s):  
Jane Banaszak-Holl ◽  
Xiaoping Lin ◽  
Jing Xie ◽  
Stephanie Ward ◽  
Henry Brodaty ◽  
...  

Abstract Research Aims: This study seeks to understand whether those with dementia experience higher risk of death, using data from the ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) clinical trial study. Methods: ASPREE was a primary intervention trial of low-dose aspirin among healthy older people. The Australian cohort included 16,703 dementia-free participants aged 70 years and over at enrolment. Participants were triggered for dementia adjudication if cognitive test results were poorer than expected, self-reporting dementia diagnosis or memory problems, or dementia medications were detected. Incidental dementia was adjudicated by an international adjudication committee using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria and results of a neuropsychological battery and functional measures with medical record substantiation. Statistical analyses used a cox proportional hazards model. Results: As previously reported, 1052 participants (5.5%) died during a median of 4.7 years of follow-up and 964 participants had a dementia trigger, of whom, 575 (60%) were adjucated as having dementia. Preliminary analyses has shown that the mortality rate was higher among participants with a dementia trigger, regardless of dementia adjudication outcome, than those without (15% vs 5%, Χ2 = 205, p <.001). Conclusion: This study will provide important analyses of differences in the hazard ratio for mortality and causes of death among people with and without cognitive impairment and has important implications on service planning.


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