Personal economy had also a strong association with mental health symptoms.

We could even study factors that are rare in the general population and take into account a wide range of socio economic and lifestyle factors at the same time. It comprises a study population of over 42000 individuals and represents about one million inhabitants aged 18 84 years in Sweden. Just think for a moment. Previous studies have indicated that economic hardship both at present and under childhood is strongly associated with poor mental health. On p of that, subjects with economic problems had a higher prevalence of anxiety/depression than subjects without economic problems.

There were two questions about domestic work. AM coordinated the study and drafted the manuscript. All authors participated in data acquisition, design of the study and helped to draft the manuscript. Now regarding the aforementioned fact. The second question asked how often the respondent experienced domestic work as burdensome. HE, CP, KB and MLB performed the statistical analyses. The first asked exactly how many hours per week the respondent spent working indoors that was not paid work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Relative weight was measured by using body mass index.

Mental prevalence health symptoms was higher among younger than older subjects. The participants were categorised as pointed out by the WHO guidelines as underweight when BMI was lower than 185 kg/m2, normal weight when BMI was between 185 and 249 kg/m2, overweight when BMI was between 25 and 299 kg/m2, and obese when BMI was equal to or over 30 kg/m2. Of course the best mental health was found at ages 6574 years reported that they were moderately anxious or depressed, whereas 672 reported that they were extremely anxious or depressed. Consequently, about 40 women percent and 30 percent of men reported that they were moderately or extremely anxious or depressed. BMI was calculated from selfreported weight and height as weight divided with height squared.

Young adults have a higher prevalence of mental health symptoms than older subjects do. Mental prevalence health symptoms decreased with age until the age of 70 74″ years and increased again among those over 75 years. We extended the model by including domestic work and lifestyle factors in the study. Nearly half of women and one men third aged 18 34 years reported that they were moderately or extremely anxious or depressed. Seriously. Many factors that been shown to be associated with mental health symptoms in the present and other studies are more prevalent among younger than older subjects. Known the present aim study was to estimate the prevalence of ‘selfreported’ mental health symptoms among men and women in different age groups in the general population and to disentangle the associations between socio economic conditions, lifestyle factors and mental health symptoms. Therefore, while working conditions and critical life events, as a starting point, we used a model of mental health indicators which had been established in a working group in the European Union, and which includes social relations, economic factors.

Smoking habits and snuff use were derived from the questionnaire, combined and dichotomised into any cigarette smoking or snuff use daily and not daily.

Country of origin was obtained by record linkage to a national population register. Basically, the respondents were categorised into those born in Sweden, in other Nordic countries, in other European countries and outside Europe. While living with partner, living with partner and children, single parent and other, family status was obtained from a survey question and categorised into living alone. Alcohol consumption was measured using the first three questions in the WHO instrument AUDIT. Let me tell you something. Educational level was obtained through record linkage to information from a national education register and was categorised into three classes. These three questions measure the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption and relate to risk consumption of alcohol.

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. Once or twice, the answer categories were never, and several times during the last three months. The participants were also asked whether they had experienced that someone had belittled them during the last three months. Anyway, this is a Open Access article distributed under the Creative terms Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. So here is a question. You have any persons in your surrounding you can get support from in the event of emotional crises or problems, right?

Factors that were strongly and independently related with anxiety/depression were poor social support, experiences of being belittled, employment status, economic hardship, critical life events, and functional disability were asked and dichotomised into no or at least one event.

Women still have a high workload both at work and in the premises and also a higher level of stress hormones, even when there is a relatively high equality of opportunities between genders in Sweden. Basically, it is plausible that this has to do with women position in society. This is where it starts getting very entertaining, right? Our results show that women report mental health symptoms to a larger extent than men do.

Of lifestyle factors, physical inactivity, underweight and risk consumption of alcohol were independently associated with anxiety/depression. Underweight was associated with anxiety/depression especially among women and risk consumption of alcohol especially among men. Previous studies have reported domestic work as a risk factor for poor health among women, particularly in combination with workrelated stress, whereas the association was less often studied or found weaker among men. Consequently, subjects who often or very often experienced domestic work as burdensome had an increased prevalence of mental health symptoms. I’m sure it sounds familiar.|Doesn’t it sound familiar?|Sounds familiar?|does it not? This was true as well for women as for men. Furthermore, instead a strong independent association was found between how burdensome domestic work was experienced and anxiety/depression. There was no association between hours number spent in domestic work such as taking care of children, nursing relatives, buying the groceries, cooking, washing the laundry, cleaning etc and mental health symptoms.

The present response rate study was 64 percent. The response rate was lower among younger than older subjects and among men compared with women. The absolute levels of selfreported mental health symptoms going to be interpreted with caution. Education level was also somewhat higher among the respondents than among the general same population age. Anyways, those who suffer from severe psychiatric disorders are probably underrepresented. Anyways, it is, however, unlikely that the associations between mental health symptoms and other factors reported in the present study could was explained by nonresponse.

Physical inactivity was associated with mental health symptoms in the present study. Contrary to previous research there was, however, no association between obesity and anxiety/depression when adjusted for ‘socioeconomic’ and other lifestyle factors. Oftentimes while corroborating previous studies, underweight subjects had a higher prevalence of mental health symptoms than normal weight subjects, especially among women. Then, this is in line with previous studies where physical activity had been shown to have a positive effect on mental health. Underweight can be an effect of an eating disorder, which in turn is related to poor mental health.

Whereas the most severe psychiatric disorders, such as psychoses, have not increased in the population in Sweden during the last decades, there was an increase in nervousness prevalence and anxiety since beginning of the 1990s the start. While indicating that ‘selfreported’ severe mental health symptoms are good indicators of psychiatric morbidity, the increased premature mortality and psychiatric morbidity associated with these symptoms has, however, been relatively stable during the last ten years. However, one possible explanation that had been mentioned is that it has become more socially accepted to tell about nervousness or anxiety.

Social relations are in many ways important for mental health.

Physical environment was derived from a question. Option never was then coded as 0, sometimes or seldom were coded as 1 and often as 2 for disturbances each. Poor social support and being belittled were strongly related with mental health symptoms in the present study. Social support is a protecting factor that acts a buffer in psychosocial cr situations and strain. Previous studies indicate that experiences of shame are associated with poor mental health for example among the unemployed. How often do you have disturbance in or around your house from the following sources? ‘3 5’ was coded as less good and 6 or more was coded as poor physical environment, if the sum was ‘0 2’ the physical environment was coded as good.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests. The study is based on a postal survey questionnaire sent to a random sample of men and women aged ’18 84′ years in autumn the survey aim was to investigate the health status, lifestyle factors and living conditions as well as health care use in the population. The overall response rate was 64 percent. Just keep reading. The area investigated covers 55 municipalities in five counties with about one million inhabitants in central part of Sweden. The data collection was completed after two postal reminders. The sampling was random at individual level and stratified by gender, age group, county and municipality. The study population includes 42448 respondents.

Critical life events, such as death of a near relative, own or a relative’s severe illness, separation from a spouse or a partner or being laid off from work, were associated with mental health symptoms in the present study. These events can be a triggering factor for poor mental health because they require a high level of psychological adaptation. Although, in the present study, a factor that was strongly related to mental health symptoms was functional disability being dependent on help from others to manage everyday life. Essentially, there is also an association between physical ill health and mental ill health.

Poor mental health has large social and economic consequences both for the individual and society.

Our results support the notion that a ground for good mental health includes balance in social relations, in domestic work, in employment as well as in personal economy. Lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity, underweight and risk consumption of alcohol is associated with mental health symptoms independent of ‘socioeconomic’ factors. In Sweden, mental prevalence health symptoms has increased since beginning of the 1990s the initial stage. Adds domestic work as amid the key factors both among men and women, this is in line with previous studies. It would be valuable to take into account all these areas of life when planning activities to prevent mental health symptoms, highly prevalent in the general population, and when promoting mental health. Furthermore, an individual will be able to better handle psychosocial cr situations or strain if she/he possesses a wide array of protecting factors. However, there is a need for a better area understanding for planning preventive activities and health care.

Mental health symptoms were measured with a question about anxiety/depression. Physical activity was measured with the question.

Basically, eQ 5D is a standardised instrument including five questions that measure health related quality of life. The 5th question represents mental health and is as follows. Just think for a moment. Please indicate which statements best describe your own health state today. The two middle categories were combined into moderate exercise. Anxiety/Depression, with answer options I am not anxious or depressed, I am moderately anxious or depressed and I am extremely anxious or depressed. How much do you exercise physically in your leisure time?

While working conditions and critical life events, results from previous studies show strong associations between mental health and social relations. Some lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, alcohol consumption and obesity have also been found to be related with mental health. So, persons with low socioeconomic status have poorer mental health than persons with high socioeconomic status. Nonetheless, there is a need for a better understanding of these associations in order to plan preventive activities and health care. Domestic work had been found to be associated with mental ‘well being’ among women.

EQ5D is an internationally validated scale of quality of life where the fifth dimension measures anxiety/depression. Another widely used measure of mental health is GHQ12, the General twelveitem version Health Questionnaire, which was also measured in the present study. We used EQ 5D to analyse the association between the studied ‘socio economic’ and lifestyle factors and mental health because it gives more information about mental severity health symptoms than using one cut off point for GHQThe results were, however, similar when using ‘GHQ12’ instead of EQ5D as the dependent variable, which gives further support to findings of the study the findings.

The respondents gave their informed consent to use the national register data by answering the questionnaire.

Whenever working in the apartments, on disability pension, retired or other, employment status was derived from a survey question about whether the respondent was employed, selfemployed, student, on parental leave. For instance, the personal identification numbers were deleted directly after the record linkage with the national registers and the survey data are thus anonymous. As a result, the survey was approved by the five boards county councils and confidentiality of the data the confidentiality is assured under the Swedish law. Economic hardship was assessed by asking whether the respondent had problems with paying running bills during the last 12 months.

Our results support the notion that a ground for good mental health includes balance in social relations, in domestic work and in employment as well as in personal economy both among men and women. We were, however, able to extend the model by elucidating domestic importance work and lifestyle factors in the same context. Physical inactivity, underweight and risk consumption of alcohol are associated with mental health symptoms independent of ‘socioeconomic’ factors. As a starting study point, we used a model of mental health indicators which is established in a working group in the European Union. While working conditions and critical life events, it includes social relations, economic factors.

The study is based on a postal survey questionnaire sent to a random sample of men and women aged 1884″ years in The overall response rate was 64%.

The association between socioeconomic conditions, lifestyle factors and mental health symptoms was investigated using multivariate multinomial logistic regression models. Mental health was measured with ‘selfreported’ symptoms of anxiety/depression. Nevertheless, younger subjects reported poorer mental health than older subjects, the best mental health was found at ages ‘6574’ years. About 40percent of women and 30% of men reported that they were moderately or extremely anxious or depressed. Generally, the study population includes 42448 respondents. So, the area investigated covers 55 municipalities with about one million inhabitants in central part of Sweden.

There was also an association between country of origin and mental health symptoms. Educational level was not associated with mental health symptoms. Subjects born in other European countries and outside Europe were more often anxious or depressed than those born in Nordic countries which is in line with previous studies. Women had a somewhat higher prevalence of anxiety/depression than men even when socio economic conditions and lifestyle factors were taken into account. This was true for both men and women. Factors that were strongly and independently related to mental health symptoms were poor social support, experiences of being belittled, employment status, economic hardship, critical life events, and functional disability.

Share This Article