Health, Income, and Suicidal Ideation Among Older Adults in South Korea: A Gender Comparison

The levels of suicide and suicidal ideation are relatively high at older ages across the world, and many researchers have explored the risk factors. Most studies view suicidal ideation as a mental health issue related to depression, which is caused largely by age-related reduction of status and loss of control. This paper takes a sociological perspective and postulates the relevance of societal normative pressures to analyses. We assume that the strong norms of gendered roles in South Korea (prescribing men to be breadwinners and women, homemakers) will moderate the way income and health affect suicidal ideation and predict that the associations will differ by gender. We used a random-intercept logit model on data from three waves of the Korean Welfare Panel Survey (KOWEPS) conducted between 2012 and 2014. Results broadly confirm the prediction, showing that both low income and poor health increase the probability of suicidal ideation for both men and women, but the effect of income is salient for the former. Among men with low incomes, the probability of suicidal ideation is relatively high even when their health status is good. Among women, it is the confluence of low income and poor health that most increases suicidal ideation. These findings remain the same after controlling for social support variables. As mediators linking income and health to suicidal ideation, self-esteem is notable for men and depression for women. The implication of this study is sociological, where at older ages, people’s perceived failures to fulfill their own social roles are risk factors for suicidal ideation.