Risk Factors for Depression: Differential Across Age?

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry and Mental Health
• Epidemiology
• Lifespan Psychology

Background:

• Depression risk factors exhibit varying prevalence across the lifespan.
• The
• on-time off-time
• hypothesis suggests risk factors may be more impactful when depression is less expected.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the absolute and relative risks of established depression risk factors throughout adulthood.
• To examine how the association between risk factors and depression changes with age.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 2,215 adults (aged 18-93) from the NESDA and NESDO cohort studies.
• Assessment of 19 established risk factors and their absolute risk across different age groups.
• Examination of risk factor × age interactions to determine age-dependent relative risks for depression.

Main Results:

• All studied risk factors showed significant differences in occurrence across age groups.
• Five risk factors demonstrated age-dependent associations with depression.
• Childhood abuse, pain, higher body mass index (BMI), and number of chronic diseases were more strongly associated with depression in younger individuals.
• Low income presented a stronger depression risk in older adults.
• Depression associations were most pronounced in age groups with the lowest risk factor occurrence.

Conclusions:

• While exposure to risk factors changes with age, their relative risk for depression remains consistent for most.
• Specific factors like low income, pain, BMI, and chronic diseases show stronger links to depression at ages when they are least expected.