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Socioeconomic and psychosocial adversity in midlife and depressive symptoms post retirement: a 21-year follow-up of the Whitehall II study

Virtanen, M; Ferrie, JE; Batty, GD; Elovainio, M; Jokela, M; Vahtera, J; Singh-Manoux, A; (2015) Socioeconomic and psychosocial adversity in midlife and depressive symptoms post retirement: a 21-year follow-up of the Whitehall II study. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry , 23 (1) 99-109.e1. 10.1016/j.jagp.2014.04.001. Green open access

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether socioeconomic and psychosocial adversity in midlife predicts post-retirement depressive symptoms. DESIGN AND SETTING: A prospective cohort study of British civil servants who responded to a self-administered questionnaire in middle-age and at older ages, 21 years later. PARTICIPANTS: The study sample consisted of 3,939 Whitehall II Study participants (2,789 men, 1,150 women; mean age 67.6 years at follow-up) who were employed at baseline and retired at follow-up. MEASUREMENTS: Midlife adversity was assessed by self-reported socioeconomic adversity (low occupational position; poor standard of living) and psychosocial adversity (high job strain; few close relationships). Symptoms of depression post-retirement were measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. RESULTS: After adjustment for sociodemographic and health-related covariates at baseline and follow-up, there were strong associations between midlife adversities and post-retirement depressive symptoms: low occupational position (odds ratio [OR]: 1.70, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.15-2.51), poor standard of living (OR: 2.37, 95% CI: 1.66-3.39), high job strain (OR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.09-2.14), and few close relationships (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.12-2.03). The strength of the associations between socioeconomic, psychosocial, work-related, or non-work related exposures and depressive symptoms was similar. CONCLUSIONS: Robust associations from observational data suggest that several socioeconomic and psychosocial risk factors for symptoms of depression post-retirement can be detected already in midlife.

Type: Article
Title: Socioeconomic and psychosocial adversity in midlife and depressive symptoms post retirement: a 21-year follow-up of the Whitehall II study
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.jagp.2014.04.001
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2014.04.001
Language: English
Additional information: © 2015 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2014.04.001
Keywords: Depression, elderly, inequalities, life course, mood disorders, old age, prospective, stress, Aged, Depression, Employment, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Great Britain, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Middle Aged, Retirement, Risk Factors, Social Class, Time Factors
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1430055
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