Income inequalities, social support and depressive symptoms among older adults in Europe: a multilevel cross-sectional study.

Eur J Ageing

Dirección de Investigación, Postgrado y Transferencia Tecnológica (DIPTT), Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.

Published: September 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study investigates the link between income inequality and depression in older adults across 24 European countries, emphasizing the influence of social support.
  • Results indicate that lower income quintiles correlate with higher depression scores, while better social support is linked to lower depression levels, particularly in those with lower incomes.
  • Findings reveal that greater income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient) is associated with increased depression, and the relationship between social support and depression varies by country.

Article Abstract

Unlabelled: This study analysed the association between income inequality and depression from a multilevel perspective among older adults in Europe, including an examination of the role of social support. The data came from Eurostat's European Health Interview Survey (EHIS). Selected participants were aged 65 years or above ( = 68,417) and located in 24 European countries. The outcome variable (depression) was measured using the eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8). The resulting dataset included individual-level (level-1) and aggregate-level (level 2) exposure variables. Level-1 included income quintiles and social support as exposure variables and sex, age, living alone, limitation in activities of daily living and general activity limitation as control variables. Level 2 included the Gini coefficient, healthcare expenditure and dependency ratio. A multilevel linear regression analysis was performed with maximum likelihood (ML) estimation. All the income quintiles from 1 to 4 showed higher average scores for depression than quintile 5 (the highest). Higher social support scores were associated with lower scores for depression. An interaction was found between income quintile and social support, with higher levels of social support associated with lower scores for depression in quintiles 1 and 2. Higher Gini coefficient scores were associated with higher scores for depression. A significative random slope for social support was also found, meaning that the relationship between social support and depression differed across countries. No significant interaction was found between the Gini coefficient and social support. The study findings suggest that more unequal societies provide a less favourable context for the mental health of older adults. There are also significant country-dependent differences in terms of the relationship between support and mental health among older adults.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-021-00670-2.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9424474PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00670-2DOI Listing

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