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Association between sedentary behavior and wish to die among adults aged ≥50 years: findings from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing

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posted on 2024-09-03, 15:40 authored by Lee Smith, Guillermo Lopez-Sanchez, Pinar Soysal, Nicola Veronese, Masoud Rahmati, Mark Tully, Dong Keon Yon, Badrah Alghamdi, Laurie Butler, Sanjiv Ahluwalia, Graham Ball, Jae Il Shin, Ai Koyanagi

We investigated the association between sedentary behavior (SB) and wish to die (WTD; i.e., feeling that one would be better off dead or wishing for one’s own death), and the extent to which this can be explained by sleep problems, depression, anxiety, loneliness, perceived stress, and social network in a nationally representative sample of adults aged ≥50 years from Ireland. Cross-sectional data from Wave 1 of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing 2009–2011 were analyzed. WTD was defined as answering affirmatively to the question "In the last month, have you felt that you would rather be dead?" SB was used as a continuous variable (hours/day), and also as a categorical (< or ≥8 h/day) variable. Multivariable logistic regression and mediation analyses were conducted. Data on 8163 adults aged ≥50 years were analyzed [mean (SD) age 63.6 (9.1) years; 48.0% males]. Overall, ≥8 (vs. <8) hours/day of SB was associated with a significant 2.04 (95%CI = 1.50–2.76) times higher odds for WTD, while a 1-h increase in SB per day was associated with 1.11 (95%CI = 1.06–1.16) times higher odds for WTD. Mediation analysis showed that sleep problems, depression, loneliness, perceived stress, and social network explained a modest proportion of the association between SB and WTD (mediated percentage 9.3%–14.8%). The present cross-sectional study found that increasing or higher levels of SB is positively associated with WTD. Addressing the identified potential mediators may reduce WTD among people who are sedentary. However, future longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to make concrete recommendations.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Volume

178

Publication title

Journal of Psychiatric Research

ISSN

0022-3956

Publisher

Elsevier

File version

  • Published version

Item sub-type

Article

Affiliated with

  • School of Psychology and Sport Science Outputs