3. Results
3.1. Proportion of older people writing suicide notes
225 older people (age Z65) had a coronial verdict of suicide in
the five and a half years period. Hanging (22.7%) was the preferred
method, followed by firearms (20.4%), poisons (liquids and solids
mainly in the form of drug overdoses) (14.7%), carbon monoxide
inhalation (12.4%) and multiple lethal means (9.8%).
In 212 (94.2%) cases, we were able to determine from the coronial
records whether a suicide note was left by the person. 88
older people left a suicide note and this represents a proportion of
41.5%.