Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychiatry

Sec. Aging Psychiatry

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1636838

Predictors and risk factors for suicide in late-life depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Lei  YangLei Yang1*Ping  ZhangPing Zhang1Hao  ZhangHao Zhang1Jinfeng  WangJinfeng Wang1Yingzhe  ZhouYingzhe Zhou1Donghong  ZhangDonghong Zhang2Yue  ZhangYue Zhang1Qing  WenQing Wen1
  • 1Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
  • 2The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: The prevalence of late-life depression (LLD) is high, and its most dangerous, serious and fatal comorbidity is suicide. Therefore, the present study systematically investigates the risk factors for suicide in individuals with LLD, offering empirical support for the development of preventive interventions against suicidal behavior. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, PsycInfo, CNKI, Wan Fang Data, VIP, and CBM databases were searched from the inception of each database to February 2025, to identify observational study of risk factors for suicide in LLD patients. The Newcastle -Ottawa scale (NOS) and the Agency for Health care Research and Quality (AHRQ) were used for study quality. Stata 18.0 software was used to perform a meta-analysis and sensitivity analysis to compute the pooled odds ratio. Results: Twelve studies (8 case-control, 2 cross-sectional, and 2 longitudinal studies), with a quality level of medium or above, were included in the analysis. Depression severity (OR = 3.485, 95% CI: 1.385 to 8.769, P = 0.008) was identified as a significant risk factor for suicide in LLD. The age of onset (OR = 0.969, 95% CI: 0.905 to 1.039, P = 0.378) was not statistically significant for the risk of suicide in LLD. Descriptive analysis revealed that suicidal ideation, educational level, N3 sleep duration, odor identification dysfunction, alcohol drinking history, cognitive function, history of major trauma, history of suicide attempts and High-Density Lipoprotein were associated with increased suicide risk in LLD. Conclusion: Our meta-analysis has revealed a variety of factors influencing suicide risk in LLD patients. Clinical staff should strengthen the assessment and screening of risk factors and take timely intervention and targeted treatment to reduce the risk of suicide in LLD. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO, identifier CRD420251040029.

Keywords: LLD, Suicide, Risk factors, Meta-analysis, Systematic review

Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 15 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Zhang, Zhang, Wang, Zhou, Zhang, Zhang and Wen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Lei Yang, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.