Social participation and depression in old age: a fixed-effects analysis in 10 European countries

We examined whether changes in different forms of social participation were associated with changes in depressive symptoms in older Europeans. We used lagged individual fixed effects models based on data from 9,068 individuals aged 50+ in wave 1 (2004/05), wave 2 (2006/07) and wave 4 (2010/11) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Controlling for a wide set of confounders, increased participation in religious organizations predicted a decline in depressive symptoms four years later (β =-0.190 units, 95% confidence interval: -0.365, -0.016), while participation in political/community organizations was associated with an increase in depressive symptoms (β =0.222, 95% confidence interval: 0.018, 0.428). There were no significant differences between European regions in these associations. Our findings suggest that social participation is associated with depressive symptoms, but the direction and strength of the association depends on the type of social activity. Participation in religious organizations may offer benefits to mental health beyond those offered by other forms of social participation

The contribution of health behaviors to depression risk across birth cohorts

Background: More recent birth cohorts are at a higher depression risk than cohorts born in the early twentieth century. We aimed to investigate to what extent changes in alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity and obesity, contribute to these birth cohort variations. Methods: We analyzed panel data from US adults born 1916-1966 enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study (N=163,760 person-years). We performed a counterfactual decomposition analysis by combining age-period-cohort models with g-computation. This allowed us to compare the predicted probability of elevated depressive symptoms (CES-D 8 score ≥3) in the natural course to a counterfactual scenario where all birth cohorts had the health behavior of the 1945 birth cohort. We stratified analyses by sex and race/ethnicity. Results: Depression risk of the 1916-1949 and 1950-1966 birth cohort would be on average 2% (-2.3 to -1.7) and 0.5% (-0.9 to -0.1) higher had they had the alcohol consumption levels of the 1945 cohort. In the counterfactual with the 1945 BMI distribution, depression risk is on average 2.1% (1.8 to 2.4) higher for the 1916-1940 cohorts and 1.8% (-2.2 to -1.5) lower for the 1950-1966 cohorts. We find no cohort variations in depression risk for smoking and physical activity. The contribution of alcohol is more pronounced for Whites than for other race/ethnicity groups, and the contribution of BMI more pronounced for women than for men. Conclusion: Increased obesity levels exacerbated depression risk in recent birth cohorts in the US, while drinking patterns only played a minor role

The role of labor market inequalities in explaining the gender gap in depression risk among older US adults

We aim to investigate to what extent gender inequality at the labor market explains higher depression risk for older US women compared to men. We analyze data from 35,699 US adults aged 50–80 years that participated in the Health and Retirement Study. The gender gap is calculated as the difference in prevalence in elevated depressive symptoms (score ≥ 3 on the 8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) between women and men. We employ a dynamic causal decomposition and simulate the life course of a synthetic cohort from ages 50–80 with the longitudinal g-formula and introduce four nested interventions by assigning women the same probabilities of A) being in an employment category, B) occupation class, C) current income and D) prior income group as men, conditional on women's health and family status until age 70. The gender gap in depression risk is 2.9%-points at ages 50–51 which increases to 7.6%-points at ages 70–71. Intervention A decreases the gender gap over ages 50–71 by 1.2%-points (95%CI for change: 2.81 to 0.4), intervention D by 1.64%-points (95%CI for change: 3.28 to −0.15) or 32% (95%CI: 1.39 to 62.83), and the effects of interventions B and C are in between those of A and D. The impact is particularly large for Hispanics and low educated groups. Gender inequalities at the labor market substantially explain the gender gap in depression risk in older US adults. Reducing these inequalities has the potential to narrow the gender gap in depression.</p

The Contribution of Health Behaviors to Depression Risk across Birth Cohorts

More recent birth cohorts are at a higher depression risk than cohorts born in the early 20th century. We aimed to investigate to what extent changes in alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, and obesity contribute to these birth cohort variations. METHODS: We analyzed panel data from US adults born 1916–1966 enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 163,760 person-years). We performed a counterfactual decomposition analysis by combining age-period-cohort models with g-computation. We thereby compared the predicted probability of elevated depressive symptoms (CES-D 8 score ≥3) in the natural course to a counterfactual scenario where all birth cohorts had the health behaviors of the 1945 birth cohort. We stratified analyses by sex and race-ethnicity. RESULTS: We estimated that depression risk of the 1916–1949 and 1950–1966 birth cohort would be on average 2.0% (–2.3 to –1.7) and 0.5% (–0.9 to –0.1) higher with the alcohol consumption levels of the 1945 cohort. In the counterfactual with the 1945 BMI distribution, depression risk is on average 2.1% (1.8 to 2.4) higher for the 1916–1940 cohorts and 1.8% (–2.2 to –1.5) lower for the 1950–1966 cohorts. We find no cohort variations in depression risk for smoking and physical activity. The contribution of alcohol is more pronounced for Whites than for other race-ethnicity groups, and the contribution of BMI more pronounced for women than for men. CONCLUSION: Increased obesity levels were associated with exacerbated depression risk in recent birth cohorts in the United States, while drinking patterns only played a minor role

Determinants of participation in worksite health promotion programmes: a systematic review

Background The workplace has been identified as a promising setting for health promotion, and many worksite health promotion programmes have been implemented in the past years. Research has mainly focused on the effectiveness of these interventions. For implementation of interventions at a large scale however, information about (determinants of) participation in these programmes is essential. This systematic review investigates initial participation in worksite health promotion programmes, the underlying determinants of participation, and programme characteristics influencing participation levels. Methods Studies on characteristics of participants and non-participants in worksite health promotion programmes aimed at physical activity and/or nutrition published from 1988 to 2007 were identified through a structured search in PubMed and Web of Science. Studies were included if a primary preventive worksite health promotion programme on PA and/or nutrition was described, and if quantitative information was present on determinants of participation. Results In total, 23 studies were included with 10 studies on educational or counselling programmes, 6 fitness centre interventions, and 7 studies examining determinants of participation in multi-component programmes. Participation levels varied from 10% to 64%, with a median of 33% (95% CI 25-42%). In general, female workers had a higher participation than men (OR = 1.67; 95% CI 1.25-2.27]), but this difference was not observed for interventions consisting of access to fitness centre programmes. For the other demographic, health- and work-related characteristics no consistent effect on participation was found. Pooling of studies showed a higher participation level when an incentive was offered, when the programme consisted of multiple components, or when the programme was aimed at multiple behaviours. Conclusions In this systematic review, participation levels in health promotion interventions at the workplace were typically below 50%. Few studies evaluated the influence of health, lifestyle and work-related factors on participation, which hampers the insight in the underlying determinants of initial participation in worksite health promotion. Nevertheless, the present review does provide some strategies that can be adopted in order to increase participation levels. In addition, the review highlights that further insight is essential to develop intervention programmes with the ability to reach many employees, including those who need it most and to increase the generalizability across all workers

A systematic review of the effect of infrastructural interventions to promote cycling: strengthening causal inference from observational data

Abstract: Background: Previous reviews have suggested that infrastructural interventions can be effective in promoting cycling. Given inherent methodological complexities in the evaluation of such changes, it is important to understand whether study results obtained depend on the study design and methods used, and to describe the implications of the methods used for causality. The aims of this systematic review were to summarize the effects obtained in studies that used a wide range of study designs to assess the effects of infrastructural interventions on cycling and physical activity, and whether the effects varied by study design, data collection methods, or statistical approaches. Methods: Six databases were searched for studies that evaluated infrastructural interventions to promote cycling in adult populations, such as the opening of cycling lanes, or the expansion of a city-wide cycling network. Controlled and uncontrolled studies that presented data before and after the intervention were included. No language or date restrictions were applied. Data was extracted for any outcome presented (e.g. bikes counted on the new infrastructure, making a bike trip, cycling frequency, cycling duration), and for any purpose of cycling (e.g. total cycling, recreational cycling, cycling for commuting). Data for physical activity outcomes and equity effects was extracted, and quality assessment was conducted following previous methodologies and the UK Medical Research Council guidance on natural experiments. The PROGRESS-Plus framework was used to describe the impact on subgroups of the population. Studies were categorized by outcome, i.e. changes in cycling behavior, or usage of the cycling infrastructure. The relative change was calculated to derive a common outcome across various metrics and cycling purposes. The median relative change was presented to evaluate whether effects differed by methodological aspects. Results: The review included 31 studies and all were conducted within urban areas in high-income countries. Most of the evaluations found changes in favor of the intervention, showing that the number of cyclists using the facilities increased (median relative change compared to baseline: 62%; range: 4 to 438%), and to a lesser extent that cycling behavior increased (median relative change compared to baseline: 22%; range: − 21 to 262%). Studies that tested for statistical significance and studies that used subjective measurement methods (such as surveys and direct observations of cyclists) found larger changes than those that did not perform statistical tests, and those that used objective measurement methods (such as GPS and accelerometers, and automatic counting stations). Seven studies provided information on changes of physical activity behaviors, and findings were mixed. Three studies tested for equity effects following the opening of cycling infrastructure. Conclusions: Study findings of natural experiments evaluating infrastructural interventions to promote cycling depended on the methods used and the approach to analysis. Studies measuring cycling behavior were more likely to assess actual behavioral change that is most relevant for population health, as compared to studies that measured the use of cycling infrastructure. Triangulation of methods is warranted to overcome potential issues that one may encounter when evaluating environmental changes within the built environment. Trial registration: The protocol of this study was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42018091079)

Residential area characteristics and disabilities among Dutch community-dwelling older adults

Background: Living longer independently may be facilitated by an attractive and safe residential area, which stimulates physical activity. We studied the association between area characteristics and disabilities and whether this association is mediated by transport-related physical activity (TPA). Methods: Longitudinal data of 271 Dutch community-dwelling adults aged 65years and older participating in the Elderly And their Neighbourhood (ELANE) study in 2011-2013 were used. Associations between objectively measured aesthetics (range 0-22), functional features (range 0-14), safety (range 0-16), and destinations (range 0-15) within road network buffers surrounding participants' residences, and self-reported disabilities in instrumental activities of daily living (range 0-8; measured twice over a 9months period) were investigated by using longitudinal tobit regression analyses. Furthermore, it was investigated whether self-reported TPA mediated associations between area characteristics and disabilities. Results: A one unit increase in aesthetics within the 400m buffer was associated with 0.86 less disabilities (95% CI -1.47 to -0.25; p<0.05), but other area characteristics were not related to disabilities. An increase in area aesthetics was associated with more TPA, and more minutes of TPA were associated with less disabilities. TPA however, only partly mediated the associated between area aesthetics and disabilities. Conclusions: Improving aesthetic features in the close by area around older persons' residences may help to prevent disability. © 2016 The Author(s)

Investigating the effects of comprehensive smoke-free legislation on neonatal and infant mortality in Thailand using the synthetic control method

Background: Almost all of the evidence on the benefits of smoke-free legislation on child health comes from evaluations in high-income countries. We investigated the effects of Thailand’s 2010 comprehensive smokefree legi