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BackgroundThoughts about death and self-harm in old age have been commonly associated with the presence of depression, but other risk factors may also be important.AimsTo determine the independent association between suicidal ideation in later life and demographic, lifestyle, socioeconomic, psychiatric and medical factors.MethodA cross-sectional study was conducted of a community-derived sample of 21290 adults aged 60-101 years enrolled from Australian primary care practices. We considered that participants endorsing any of the four items of the Depressive Symptom Inventory - Suicidality Subscale were experiencing suicidal thoughts. We used standard procedures to collect demographic, lifestyle, psychosocial and clinical data. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.ResultsThe 2-week prevalence of suicidal ideation was 4.8%. Male …