Limitation on activities of daily living, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among nursing home residents: The moderating role of resilience

Nursing home residents are at a higher risk of suicidal ideation, and depressive symptoms and limitations on activities of daily living (ADL) are presumed to be contributory factors, whereas resilience may buffer the negative effects of risk factors. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of suicidal ideation and the moderating effect of resilience on suicidal ideation to dilute the adverse contribution of ADL limitation and depressive symptoms. A stratified random sampling was used to recruit 538 residents from 37 nursing homes in China. Participants' suicidal ideation, resilience, depressive symptoms, and ADL limitation were measured and tested by structural equation modeling. Statistics show that 14.9% of participants had suicidal ideation and the model where resilience moderated the effects of ADL limitation and depressive symptoms on suicidal ideation had the best model fit index. This suggests that positive psychological interventions for resilience building might be effective in reducing suicidal ideation.