Background
Little population-based data among middle-aged adults exists examining the relationships between depressive symptoms, alcohol use, and socio-economic status (SES).
Researchers at SERAF have aimed to describe the relationship between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at different levels of SES and to determine differences across SES levels among a population-based sample of 40 and 45 year old adults in Norway
Methods
This analysis was based on data from two Norwegian health studies conducted in 2000 and 2001, and included community-dwelling Norwegian men and women aged 40 and 45 years. Self-reported frequency and quantity of alcoholic drinks was used to calculate past-year typical quantity of drinks consumed and frequency of 5+ drinks per occasion, or heavy episodic drinking (HED).
Depressive symptoms were assessed with the 10-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist, and SES was measured as education level and employment status. To observe the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at each level of SES we fitted multinomial logistic regression models using each alcohol outcome as a dependent variable stratified by level of education and employment.
To observe differences across levels of SES, we examined the interaction between depressive symptoms and SES level in multinomial logistic regression models for each alcohol measures.
Conclusions
The results show a variety of associations between depressive symptoms and alcohol use among people with lower SES, and suggest type of alcohol use and SES measure may influence the observation of an association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at different levels.
Read the article in BMC Public Health