Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, IRCCS NEUROMED, Pozzilli (IS), Via dell'Elettronica, Pozzilli (IS), 86077, Italy.
Department of Medicine and Surgery, LUM University, Casamassima, Italy.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Oct 7;24(1):2725. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-19960-2.
Economic downturns may have detrimental effects on mental health. We investigated the association of economic hardship resulting from the late 2000s Great Recession with long-term changes in mental health.
We analysed data from 1,647 participants to the larger Moli-sani cohort (2005-2010, Italy), who were re-examined between 2017 and 2020. To evaluate economic hardship, we performed a Latent Class Analysis on nine items linked to change in employment status and financial hardship. Depression symptoms were measured by the Patients' Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2; higher values indicate more depressive symptoms; data available in N = 941 individuals) and health perception as assessed by the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (decreased values indicate worsening of health perception).
Economic hardship was categorized into three classes: "None", "Average" and "High", the latter reflecting increasing economic hardship. Mean (standard deviation) changes in PHQ-2, SF-36 mental and physical after 12.8 years (median) were - 0.1 (1.3), 0.5 (9.9) and - 2.2 (6.2) units, respectively. Changes in SF-36 mental score decreased by 1.0 unit (0.3) monotonically across "none" to "average" to "high" category in a multivariable-adjusted model analysis; the SF-36 physical score decreased by 0.4 (0.2) unit and PHQ-2 increased by 0.1 (0.1). In comparison with participants in the "none", those in the "high" class had 84% (95%CI: 26%-170%) higher odds to report an increment in PHQ-2 values from baseline to re-examination.
Economic hardship resulting from the Great Recession in late 2000s was associated with deterioration of mental health, as reflected by increased depression symptoms and reduced perceived mental health.
经济衰退可能对心理健康产生不利影响。我们调查了 2000 年代后期大衰退导致的经济困难与心理健康长期变化之间的关联。
我们分析了来自更大的莫利萨尼队列（2005-2010 年，意大利）的 1647 名参与者的数据，这些参与者在 2017 年至 2020 年之间接受了重新检查。为了评估经济困难，我们对与就业状况和经济困难变化相关的九个项目进行了潜在类别分析。抑郁症状通过患者健康问卷（PHQ-2 进行衡量；更高的值表示更多的抑郁症状；数据可用于 941 人）和 36 项简短健康调查问卷（SF-36）评估的健康感知（下降的值表示健康感知恶化）。
经济困难分为三类：“无”、“平均”和“高”，后者反映了经济困难的增加。经过 12.8 年（中位数）后，PHQ-2、SF-36 心理和身体的平均（标准差）变化分别为-0.1（1.3）、0.5（9.9）和-2.2（6.2）单位。在多变量调整模型分析中，SF-36 心理评分在“无”到“平均”到“高”类别中每增加一个单位，变化减少 1.0 个单位（0.3）；SF-36 身体评分减少 0.4（0.2）个单位，PHQ-2 增加 0.1（0.1）。与“无”类别的参与者相比，“高”类别的参与者报告 PHQ-2 值从基线到重新检查增加的可能性高 84%（95%CI：26%-170%）。
2000 年代后期大衰退导致的经济困难与心理健康恶化相关，表现为抑郁症状增加和感知心理健康下降。
