Wagamaga OP t1_j7qnb64 wrote
People from the poorest backgrounds are far more likely to develop a mental disorder later in life than those from wealthier beginnings, suggests a study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
In addition, more than half of people with a low educational attainment at age 30 will have a diagnosis of a mental disorder 22 years later, according to the study of people in Finland.
Previous studies have found a link between socioeconomic position and incidence of mental disorders, but the importance of different measures of socioeconomic position has seldom been compared.
A team of researchers from Finland analyzed official national data on more than 1.2 million of the population born between 1966 and 1986 who were living in Finland when they turned 30.
They set out to investigate the association between socioeconomic position at the age of 30 and the subsequent risk of the most common major mental disorders - substance misuse, schizophrenia, mood, and anxiety disorders.
They used three register-based measures for socioeconomic position, namely, educational attainment, employment status, and personal total income while also taking into account shared family characteristics that have an impact.
The study's population was followed between 1996 and 2017 and just over a quarter (26.1%) of them (331,657) were diagnosed with a mental disorder during the study's follow-up period.
The researchers' analysis showed that lower socioeconomic position at age 30 was consistently associated with a higher risk of being later diagnosed with a mental disorder, even after taking into account shared family characteristics and prior history of a mental disorder.
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