Psychosocial determinants of premature health deterioration in a changing society: the case of Hungary.

The drastic increase of morbidity and mortality rates in the transforming Central-Eastern European countries, characterizing the last decades, offers a unique opportunity to analyse the relationship of those social, psychological and biological processes that contribute to rapid health modifications. In 1988 and 1995, two national representative surveys of the Hungarian population aged 16 or older (N = 20,902 and 12,640 respectively) were conducted. The results show that depressive symptom severity mediates between relative socio-economic deprivation and higher self-rated morbidity rates. The worsening of traditional risk factors such as alcohol consumption and smoking, are also the consequences of social and psychological problems. A vicious circle might be hypothesized between social deprivation and depressive symptomatology, which substantially contributes to higher morbidity and mortality rates.