The suicide rates rose from 12.9 per 100,000 persons in 1996 to 24.8
in 2007. The suicide rate for the elderly has been rising more rapidly
when compared to those of the other age groups. In order to prevent
suicidal behavior for the elderly patients, it is necessary to find out
and/or any risk or buffering factor that is related suicidal ideation.
This study was to delineate a buffering effect of family support and
spirituality on suicidal ideation for the elderly outpatients. Even
though the sample size was not good enough and there were gender
differences in educational level and age from the current sample, the
buffering effects were confirmed. That is, the only buffering factor of
family support was confirmed for the male patients and it occupied
about 11% of explained variance for the suicidal ideation. In addition,
there were two buffering factors of spirituality and family support for
the female patients. Interestingly, in the female sample, the ratio of
variance explained for the spirituality was almost 55% and that of
family support about 3%.