Psychiatry · Public Health · 3 h ago
Swedish Cohort Links Area Deprivation With Higher Depression and Anxiety Rates
A nationwide Swedish register-based cohort study of 4,065,375 people aged 10 to 50 found modestly higher rates of depression or anxiety among residents of the most deprived areas. The association persisted in sibling comparisons and was stronger in urban and periurban than rural settings.
- Most-deprived areas had higher recorded depression or anxiety rates.
- The association persisted in sibling comparisons.
- Urban and periurban estimates exceeded rural estimates.
- Lower rural service contact may affect recorded rates.
Researchers used Swedish health care, prescription and socioeconomic registers to study people aged 10 to 50 years without a recent history of depression or anxiety. The cohort included 4,065,375 participants, including 1,301,647 siblings, followed from 2015 through 2023. Small-area deprivation in 2015 was classified into quartiles across 5,984 areas. The outcome was the first recorded diagnosis or, if no diagnosis was recorded, the first relevant prescription; analyses adjusted for confounders and included sibling comparisons.
Incidence rates ranged from 22.8 per 1,000 person-years in the least deprived areas to 25.6 in the most deprived. Compared with the least deprived areas, the most deprived had a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.18 (95% CI, 1.17-1.19) for depression or anxiety; the estimate was 1.15 (95% CI, 1.13-1.17) in sibling analyses. The association was stronger among urban (HR, 1.18) and periurban residents (HR, 1.21) than among rural residents (HR, 1.11).
The findings support an association between area deprivation and recorded depression or anxiety, but do not establish causation. The authors note that lower mental health service contact in remote areas could partly explain the rural difference. The observational results do not establish a change in clinical management.
Is this summary clinically accurate?
Help fellow clinicians: your rating sends inaccurate summaries straight to our editors.
Sign in to rate this summary →Source
JAMA Network Open: Small Area Deprivation and Depression or Anxiety in a Nationwide Cohort ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.