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. 2021 Jul;56(7):1249-1262.
doi: 10.1007/s00127-020-01979-6. Epub 2020 Nov 12.

Decline of depressive symptoms in Europe: differential trends across the lifespan

Johannes Beller  1 , Enrique Regidor  2   3 , Lourdes Lostao  4 , Alexander Miething  5 , Christoph Kröger  6 , Batoul Safieddine  7 , Fabian Tetzlaff  7 , Stefanie Sperlich  7 , Siegfried Geyer  7
Affiliations

Decline of depressive symptoms in Europe: differential trends across the lifespan

Johannes Beller et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: We examined changes in the burden of depressive symptoms between 2006 and 2014 in 18 European countries across different age groups.

Methods: We used population-based data drawn from the European Social Survey (N = 64.683, 54% female, age 14-90 years) covering 18 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland) from 2006 to 2014. Depressive symptoms were measured via the CES-D 8. Generalized additive models, multilevel regression, and linear regression analyses were conducted.

Results: We found a general decline in CES-D 8 scale scores in 2014 as compared with 2006, with only few exceptions in some countries. This decline was most strongly pronounced in older adults, less strongly in middle-aged adults, and least in young adults. Including education, health and income partially explained the decline in older but not younger or middle-aged adults.

Conclusions: Burden of depressive symptoms decreased in most European countries between 2006 and 2014. However, the decline in depressive symptoms differed across age groups and was most strongly pronounced in older adults and least in younger adults. Future studies should investigate the mechanisms that contribute to these overall and differential changes over time in depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Compression of morbidity; Depression; Mental health; Population; Trend.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Average CES-D 8 scores across age between 2006 and 2014 predicted via generalized additive models (shaded areas represent 95% confidence intervals)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Changes in depressive symptoms (adjusted mean CES-D 8 score differences with 95% confidence intervals) between 2006 and 2014 across age-groups and within countries controlled for age
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Average depressive symptom item scores (CES-D 8 items; range: 0–3) across age between 2006 (solid line) and 2014 (dashed line) predicted via generalized additive models (shaded areas represent 95% confidence intervals)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Prevalence of at-risk depression via cut-off (CES-D 8 score > 9) across age between 2006 and 2014 predicted via generalized additive models (shaded areas represent 95% confidence intervals)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Changes in depressive symptoms (adjusted mean CES-D 8 score differences with 95% confidence intervals) from 2006 to 2014 in youth (age 14–24) and young adults (age 25–39) within countries adjusted for age
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