TABLE 1—
Comparison of Decedents in Long-Term Care and Community Settings: Virginia, 2003–2011
| Variable | Nursing Home or Assisted Living, No. (%) or Mean (SD) | Community, No. (%) | Pa |
| Deaths | 59 | 3623 | |
| Cause of death | .028 | ||
| Suicide | 51 (86.4) | 3402 (93.9) | |
| Undetermined | 8 (13.6) | 221 (6.1) | |
| Location of death | |||
| Nursing home | 25 (42.4) | ||
| Assisted living facility | 27 (45.8) | ||
| Unknown type but matched to a facilityb | 7 (11.9) | ||
| Age, y | 77.9 (12.0) | 63.3 (10.9) | < .001 |
| Female | 17 (28.8) | 839 (23.2) | .35 |
| White race | 53 (89.8) | 3292 (90.9) | .818 |
| Manner of injury | < .001 | ||
| Firearm | 13 (22.0) | 2279 (62.9) | |
| Hanging/suffocation | 13 (22.0) | 405 (11.2) | |
| Poisoning | 7 (11.9) | 572 (15.8) | |
| Cutting | 9 (15.3) | 84 (2.3) | |
| Fall | 10 (17.0) | 52 (1.4) | |
| Other/unknown | 7 (11.9) | 231 (6.3) | |
| Mental and physical health | |||
| Depressed mood | 20 (33.9) | 1381 (38.1) | .589 |
| Mental health problem | 34 (57.6) | 1896 (52.3) | .434 |
| Receiving psychiatric treatment | 32 (54.2) | 1357 (37.5) | .01 |
| Alcohol or substance use problem | < 5 | 728 (20.1) | .003 |
| Physical health problem | 17 (28.8) | 1184 (32.7) | .578 |
| History of suicide attempts | 13 (22.0) | 497 (13.7) | .084 |
| Disclosed suicidal ideation | 16 (27.1) | 1222 (33.7) | .332 |
| Social context | |||
| Problems with family, finances, or spouse | 7 (11.9) | 1057 (29.2) | .003 |
| Crisis in past 2 wk | 6 (10.2) | 915 (25.3) | .006 |
a
Determined with Fisher exact test for categorical variables and Wilcoxon rank sum test for continuous variables.
b
Unknown-type facilities represent address matches to facilities that were no longer operational at the time of the data merger, but through public record searches were determined to be long-term care facilities in the past.