Low self-esteem is a risk factor for depressive symptoms from young adulthood to old age

Data from two large longitudinal studies were used to analyze reciprocal relations between self-esteem and depressive symptoms across the adult life span. Study 1 included 1,685 participants aged 18 to 96 years assessed 4 times over a 9-year period. Study 2 included 2,479 participants aged 18 to 88 years assessed 3 times over a 4-year period. In both studies, cross-lagged regression analyses indicated that low self-esteem predicted subsequent depressive symptoms, but depressive symptoms did not predict subsequent levels of self-esteem. This pattern of results replicated across all age groups, for both affective–cognitive and somatic symptoms of depression, and after controlling for content overlap between the self-esteem and depression scales. The results suggest that low self-esteem operates as a risk factor for depressive symptoms at all phases of the adult life span

Self-esteem development across the life span: A longitudinal study with a large sample from Germany

The authors examined the development of self-esteem across the life span. Data came from a German longitudinal study with 3 assessments across 4 years of a sample of 2,509 individuals ages 14 to 89 years. The self-esteem measure used showed strong measurement invariance across assessments and birth cohorts. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that self-esteem follows a quadratic trajectory across the life span, increasing during adolescence, young adulthood, and middle adulthood, reaching a peak at age 60 years, and then declining in old age. No cohort effects on average levels of self-esteem or on the shape of the trajectory were found. Moreover, the trajectory did not differ across gender, level of education, or for individuals who had lived continuously in West versus East Germany (i.e., the 2 parts of Germany that had been separate states from 1949 to 1990). However, the results suggested that employment status, household income, and satisfaction in the domains of work, relationships, and health contribute to a more positive life span trajectory of self-esteem. The findings have significant implications, because they call attention to developmental stages in which individuals may be vulnerable because of low self-esteem (such as adolescence and old age) and to factors that predict successful versus problematic developmental trajectories

Antibiotic resistance of blood cultures in regional and tertiary hospital settings of Tyrol, Austria (2006-2015): Impacts & trends.

Blood stream infections rank among the top seven causes of death of the general population. The aim of our study was to better understand the epidemiology of BSI in order to improve diagnostics and patient outcome. We used retrospective aggregated laboratory data of blood samples received from all public hospitals in Tyrol, Austria between 2006 and 2015. Microorganisms were categorized into obligatory, facultative, unusual pathogens and contaminants. The distribution, the cumulative incidence and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were compared between the tertiary (TH) and regional peripheral hospitals (PH). Among 256,364 blood samples, 76.1% were from the TH The incidence of obligatory pathogens was 1.7 fold, and up to 3 times higher for facultative, unusual pathogens and contaminants in the TH and increased mainly due to an increase of E.coli, which was the most common isolated pathogen (n = 2,869), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (n = 1,439), Enterococcus sp. (n = 953) and Klebsiella sp. (n = 816). The distribution of obligatory pathogens differed between the hospital settings: In the TH Enterococcus sp. accounted for 40.8% and E.coli for 70.4%, respectively, whereas in the PH for 25.4% (p<0.0001) and 57.8%, respectively (p<0.0001) Antibiotic resistance of Gram negative bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus did not change during the observation period. Carbapenem resistance of Klebsiella sp. and vancomycin and linezolid resistance of Enterococcus faecium showed a non-significant increase since 2010 in the TH setting. We concluded that the incidence of BSI in TH was higher compared to PH. We observed higher contamination rates in the TH. We could not interpret the data of coagulase negative staphylococci due to lack of clinical data. We strongly recommend enhancement of training on blood culture sampling to decrease the rate of contamination. Due to differences in pathogen distribution and antimicrobial resistance between different hospital settings we recommend separate treatment guidelines for BSI by hospital setting