Increased mortality due to suicidal and accidental poisoning among Spanish older adults

Research authors: Hernández-Calle and collaborators

There is an increase in deaths from drug poisoning in older adults in Spain.

Suicide attempts in people over 65 years of age are usually due to self-poisoning (Troya et al., 2019), in addition, older people die accidentally by making mistakes when taking their medication (Crouch et al., 2014).

According to statistics collected by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, between 2000 and 2018, 15 353 fatal drug poisonings were recorded in Spain in people over 15 years of age, of which 18.4% corresponded to older adults. Bearing in mind that the Spanish population is aging rapidly, and suicide is a public health problem, research on suicidal behavior trends in the elderly population becomes essential in order to carry out effective preventive strategies.

In the study carried out by Hernández-Calle et al., the trends of accidental and suicidal fatal poisonings between the years 2000 and 2018 were explored among older adults (> 65 years) and working-age individuals (between 15 and 65 years). To carry it out, they analyzed the statistics collected by the INE in these years and observed the evolution in the numbers of suicidal and accidental drug poisoning in both populations, also exploring the relevant sociodemographic correlates.

The results of this study confirm an increase in suicidal drug poisoning among older adults, greater than among the population between 15 and 65 years of age, with an annual change of 7.7% compared to 3.8%.

In urban areas suicide by drug poisoning was more frequent than in rural areas. In contrast, accidental poisoning was 66% higher in rural areas and only increased among older adults in this period.

On the other hand, the highest mortality rates from drug poisoning were from non-psychotropic drug use. The consumption of psychotropic drugs has decreased since 2004. Anticoagulants and cardiac stimulants were predominant in accidental drug poisoning among the older adults. This type of poisoning would be largely preventable using safer pharmacological alternatives together with improved adherence to the correct dosage regimen, which could be achieved through improved physician-provider-patient communication and the promotion of teleassistance and domiciliary support.

These results show the differences between suicidal behaviors between older people and those of working age. In addition, it emphasizes the need to increase efforts to prevent suicide and accidental drug poisoning among older adults, reducing preventable deaths.

Reference to original paper: Hernández-Calle, D., Martínez-Alés, G., & López-Cuadrado, T. (2022). Suicidal and accidental drug poisoning mortality among older adults and working-age individuals in Spain between 2000 and 2018. BMC geriatrics, 22(1), 114. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-02806-0