STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine social inequalities in minor psychiatric morbidity as measured by the GHQ-12 using lagged models of psychiatric morbidity and changing job status. DESIGN: GHQ scores were modelled using two level hierarchical regression models with measurement occasions nested within individuals. The paper compares and contrasts three different ways of describing social position: income, social advantage and lifestyle (the Cambridge scale), and social class (the new National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification), and adjusts for attrition. SETTING: Survey interviews for a nationally representative sample of adults of working age living in Britain. PARTICIPANTS: 8091 original adult respondents in 1991 who remain of working age during 1991-1998 from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). MAIN RESULTS: There was a relation of GHQ-12 to social position when social position was combined with employment status. This relation itself varied according to a person's psychological health in the previous year. CONCLUSIONS: The relation between social position and minor psychiatric morbidity depended on whether or not a person was employed, unemployed, or economically inactive. It was stronger in those with previously less good psychological health. Among employed men and women in good health, GHQ-12 varied little according to social class, status, or income. There was a "classic" social gradient in psychiatric morbidity, with worse health in less advantaged groups, among the economically inactive. Among the unemployed, a "reverse" gradient was found: the impact of unemployment on minor psychiatric morbidity was higher for those who were previously in a more advantaged social class position.
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine social inequalities in minor psychiatric morbidity as measured by the GHQ-12 using lagged models of psychiatric morbidity and changing job status. DESIGN:GHQ scores were modelled using two level hierarchical regression models with measurement occasions nested within individuals. The paper compares and contrasts three different ways of describing social position: income, social advantage and lifestyle (the Cambridge scale), and social class (the new National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification), and adjusts for attrition. SETTING: Survey interviews for a nationally representative sample of adults of working age living in Britain. PARTICIPANTS: 8091 original adult respondents in 1991 who remain of working age during 1991-1998 from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). MAIN RESULTS: There was a relation of GHQ-12 to social position when social position was combined with employment status. This relation itself varied according to a person's psychological health in the previous year. CONCLUSIONS: The relation between social position and minor psychiatric morbidity depended on whether or not a person was employed, unemployed, or economically inactive. It was stronger in those with previously less good psychological health. Among employed men and women in good health, GHQ-12 varied little according to social class, status, or income. There was a "classic" social gradient in psychiatric morbidity, with worse health in less advantaged groups, among the economically inactive. Among the unemployed, a "reverse" gradient was found: the impact of unemployment on minor psychiatric morbidity was higher for those who were previously in a more advantaged social class position.
Authors: Matilda Annerstedt van den Bosch; Per-Olof Östergren; Patrik Grahn; Erik Skärbäck; Peter Währborg Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2015-07-14 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Aislinne Freeman; Stefanos Tyrovolas; Ai Koyanagi; Somnath Chatterji; Matilde Leonardi; Jose Luis Ayuso-Mateos; Beata Tobiasz-Adamczyk; Seppo Koskinen; Christine Rummel-Kluge; Josep Maria Haro Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2016-10-19 Impact factor: 3.295