Gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: Results from the Northern Swedish cohort

Background: The importance of social and avoidable determinants of depressive symptoms has been increasingly recognized in public health research. However, when it comes to determinant of gender differences in depressive symptoms the focus is predominantly on biological unavoidable determinants. Thu...

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Published in:Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
Main Authors: Hammarström, Anne, Phillips, Susan P.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1403494812464915
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1403494812464915
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1403494812464915
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spelling crsagepubl:10.1177/1403494812464915 2024-09-09T19:59:45+00:00 Gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: Results from the Northern Swedish cohort Hammarström, Anne Phillips, Susan P. 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1403494812464915 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1403494812464915 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1403494812464915 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Scandinavian Journal of Public Health volume 40, issue 8, page 746-752 ISSN 1403-4948 1651-1905 journal-article 2012 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494812464915 2024-06-17T04:24:32Z Background: The importance of social and avoidable determinants of depressive symptoms has been increasingly recognized in public health research. However, when it comes to determinant of gender differences in depressive symptoms the focus is predominantly on biological unavoidable determinants. Thus, there is a need for more focus on gendered social determinants of health. The aim of this study was to analyse the importance of gender relations for depressive symptoms after taking socioeconomic factors and earlier depressive symptoms into account in the Northern Swedish cohort. Methods: A 26-year follow-up study of a cohort of all school leavers in a middle-sized industrial town in Northern Sweden was performed from age 16 until age 42. Of those still alive of the original cohort, 94% participated during the whole period and answered extensive questionnaires. Exposure was measured as socioeconomic status, financial strain, perceived gender inequity in the couple relationship and division of responsibility for domestic work. The outcome was depressive symptoms at age 42, while depressive symptoms were controlled at age 30. Results: In multivariate logistic regression analyses significant relations between financial strain and, among women only, also perceived gender equity in the couple relationship and depressive symptoms after adjustment for earlier health status, as well as for all other exposure measures. Conclusions: Financial strain, and among women, also gender inequity in the couple relationship was related to depressive mood. There is a need to pay more attention to gender relations in future research on social determinants of depressive mood. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden SAGE Publications Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 40 8 746 752
institution Open Polar
collection SAGE Publications
op_collection_id crsagepubl
language English
description Background: The importance of social and avoidable determinants of depressive symptoms has been increasingly recognized in public health research. However, when it comes to determinant of gender differences in depressive symptoms the focus is predominantly on biological unavoidable determinants. Thus, there is a need for more focus on gendered social determinants of health. The aim of this study was to analyse the importance of gender relations for depressive symptoms after taking socioeconomic factors and earlier depressive symptoms into account in the Northern Swedish cohort. Methods: A 26-year follow-up study of a cohort of all school leavers in a middle-sized industrial town in Northern Sweden was performed from age 16 until age 42. Of those still alive of the original cohort, 94% participated during the whole period and answered extensive questionnaires. Exposure was measured as socioeconomic status, financial strain, perceived gender inequity in the couple relationship and division of responsibility for domestic work. The outcome was depressive symptoms at age 42, while depressive symptoms were controlled at age 30. Results: In multivariate logistic regression analyses significant relations between financial strain and, among women only, also perceived gender equity in the couple relationship and depressive symptoms after adjustment for earlier health status, as well as for all other exposure measures. Conclusions: Financial strain, and among women, also gender inequity in the couple relationship was related to depressive mood. There is a need to pay more attention to gender relations in future research on social determinants of depressive mood.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Hammarström, Anne
Phillips, Susan P.
spellingShingle Hammarström, Anne
Phillips, Susan P.
Gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: Results from the Northern Swedish cohort
author_facet Hammarström, Anne
Phillips, Susan P.
author_sort Hammarström, Anne
title Gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: Results from the Northern Swedish cohort
title_short Gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: Results from the Northern Swedish cohort
title_full Gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: Results from the Northern Swedish cohort
title_fullStr Gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: Results from the Northern Swedish cohort
title_full_unstemmed Gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: Results from the Northern Swedish cohort
title_sort gender inequity needs to be regarded as a social determinant of depressive symptoms: results from the northern swedish cohort
publisher SAGE Publications
publishDate 2012
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1403494812464915
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1403494812464915
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1403494812464915
genre Northern Sweden
genre_facet Northern Sweden
op_source Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
volume 40, issue 8, page 746-752
ISSN 1403-4948 1651-1905
op_rights http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494812464915
container_title Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
container_volume 40
container_issue 8
container_start_page 746
op_container_end_page 752
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