Social position and minor psychiatric morbidity over time in the British Household Panel Survey 1991-1998

To examine social inequalities in minor psychiatric morbidity as measured by the GHQ-12 using lagged models of psychiatric morbidity and changing job status.

GHQ scores were modelled using two level hierarchical regression models with measurement occasions nested within individuals. The paper compares and contrasts three different ways of describing social position: income, social advantage and lifestyle (the Cambridge scale), and social class (the new National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification), and adjusts for attrition.

Survey interviews for a nationally representative sample of adults of working age living in Britain.

8091 original adult respondents in 1991 who remain of working age during 1991-1998 from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).

There was a relation of GHQ-12 to social position when social position was combined with employment status. This relation itself varied according to a person's psychological health in the previous year.

The relation between social position and minor psychiatric morbidity depended on whether or not a person was employed, unemployed, or economically inactive. It was stronger in those with previously less good psychological health. Among employed men and women in good health, GHQ-12 varied little according to social class, status, or income. There was a "classic" social gradient in psychiatric morbidity, with worse health in less advantaged groups, among the economically inactive. Among the unemployed, a "reverse" gradient was found: the impact of unemployment on minor psychiatric morbidity was higher for those who were previously in a more advantaged social class position.