The 24 month training and research fellowship enables the applicant to acquire new research skills in epidemiological methods of rare events, expand research knowledge in the areas of homicide-suicide in an older population, and provide the base for completion of a dissertation in the field of Aging Studies. The primary research and training will be under the sponsorship and direction of Donna Cohen, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Aging and Mental Health at the University of South Florida. The proposed research will use a psychological autopsy method to identify and clarify individual, environmental, and relationship factors involved in homicide-suicide and suicide among older spousal intimates. Thirty homicide-suicide cases and sixty suicide case controls will be ascertained through the participation of 12 medical examiner districts in Florida over the 24 month period. Data analyses will consist of 1) Latent Variable Analysis to identify correlations among variables and allow for the formation of larger constructs; 2) Multivariate Logistic Regressions will be conducted to determine variables that represent significant risk for homicide-suicide and suicide among older, married couples. Age, demographic variables, Axis I and Axis II diagnoses, and the latent construct variables determined from previous analyses will be analyzed in the model.
The specific aims of the proposal are 1) to clarify antecedents for the violent acts of homicide-suicide and suicide in older adults, and 2) explain differences in these antecedents in homicide-suicide and suicide.
| Malphurs, Julie E; Cohen, Donna (2005) A statewide case-control study of spousal homicide-suicide in older persons. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 13:211-7 |
| Malphurs, Julie E; Cohen, Donna (2002) A newspaper surveillance study of homicide-suicide in the United States. Am J Forensic Med Pathol 23:142-8 |
| Malphurs, J E; Eisdorfer, C; Cohen, D (2001) A comparison of antecedents of homicide-suicide and suicide in older married men. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 9:49-57 |
