Heterogeneity in the association between social support and mental distress in old-age retirees - a computational approach using longitudinal cohort data.

Background: Mental distress among retirees and older people is a severe public health challenge, and information on new risk groups is needed. This study aims to identify subgroups of old-age retirees with varying associations between low social support and mental distress by applying model-based recursive partitioning (MOB).

Methods: We used the Helsinki Health Study follow-up survey data of old-age retired former municipal sector employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland.