Laboratory
Population Health
At a Glance
Projects
Publications
Team
Project
Explaining Differences in Mental Health Among Subgroups (Dissertation)
Maria Gültzow (MPIDR / Erasmus University Medical Center, Department of Public Health, Rotterdam, Netherlands), Mikko Myrskylä, Maarten Jacob Bijlsma, Frank J van Lenthe (Erasmus University Medical Center, Department of Public Health, Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Detailed Description
Mental disorders are a major cause of disease burden around the globe. Suffering from a mental disorder affects productivity and work performance, relationships with friends and family, and social engagement overall. It is also associated with an increased risk of suicide. While the disease burden is substantial in the general population, some subgroups have a higher prevalence of mental disorders than others.
This project investigates the underlying mechanisms that explain these differences in mental disorders, specifically depression and depression risk, across specific subgroups. Subgroups of interest are gender, genetic risk, birth cohort, and socioeconomic group.
The methodological focus is (dynamic) causal decomposition analysis based on the (longitudinal) g-formula and marginal structural models with inverse probability of treatment weighting. The project further combines age-period-cohort analysis with the g-formula and performs four-way decomposition analyses. We use large longitudinal surveys conducted in the USA and Europe among children and teenagers (Generation R study), adults (Finnish register data), and older adults (Health and Retirement Study).
Our results so far have shown that 1950-1966 birth cohorts in the USA are more depressed than cohorts born earlier in the 20th century, partially due to the rise in obesity prevalence. One-third of the gender depression gap among older adults is explained by unequal opportunities in the labor market across gender. Socioeconomic inequalities in the mental health of young adolescents partly result from higher obesity rates in low socioeconomic groups rather than obesity having a stronger impact within these groups.
Health Care, Public Health, Medicine, and Epidemiology, Life Course
Europe, Finland, Netherlands, USA
Publications
Gueltzow, M.; Oude Groeniger, J.; Bijlsma, M. J.; Jansen , P. W.; Houweling, T. A. J.; van Lenthe, F. J.:
Annals of Epidemiology 94, 19–26. (2024)
Gueltzow, M.; Bijlsma, M. J.; van Lenthe, F. J.; Myrskylä, M.:
Social Science and Medicine 332:116100, 1–9. (2023)
Gueltzow, M.; Bijlsma, M. J.; van Lenthe, F. J.; Myrskylä, M.:
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2023-003. (2023)
Gueltzow, M.; Lahtinen, H.; Bijlsma, M. J.; Myrskylä, M.; Martikainen, P.:
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2023-049. (2023)
Gueltzow, M.; Oude Groeniger, J.; Bijlsma, M. J.; Jansen, P.; Houweling, T.; van Lenthe, F. J.:
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2023-016. (2023)
Gültzow, M.; Bijlsma, M. J.; van Lenthe, F. J.; Myrskylä, M.:
European Journal of Public Health 33:Suppl. 2, ii348–ii349. (2023)
Gültzow, M.; Bijlsma, M. J.; van Lenthe, F. J.; Myrskylä, M.:
Epidemiology 33:6, 880–889. (2022)
Gueltzow, M.; Bijlsma, M. J.; van Lenthe, F. J.; Myrskylä, M.:
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2021-017. (2021)