Cargando…

Educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older Europeans

We examined the relationship between educational attainment (EA) and anxiety symptoms in a sample of 77,792 individuals (median age = 64 years, 55% female) from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Using logistic regression, we estimated odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chlapecka, Adam, Wolfová, Katrin, Fryčová, Barbora, Cermakova, Pavla
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10432412/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37587157
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40196-4
_version_ 1785091404431622144
author Chlapecka, Adam
Wolfová, Katrin
Fryčová, Barbora
Cermakova, Pavla
author_facet Chlapecka, Adam
Wolfová, Katrin
Fryčová, Barbora
Cermakova, Pavla
author_sort Chlapecka, Adam
collection PubMed
description We examined the relationship between educational attainment (EA) and anxiety symptoms in a sample of 77,792 individuals (median age = 64 years, 55% female) from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Using logistic regression, we estimated odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association between EA (7 educational levels based on International Standard Classification of Education) and anxiety symptoms (12 or more points from the shortened 5-item version of the Beck Anxiety Inventory), adjusting for sociodemographic and health-related factors. We further explored whether the relationship varied by region, sex and age group. Independent of sociodemographic and health-related factors, higher levels of EA were associated with lower odds of anxiety symptoms. The magnitude of this association plateaued at first stage of tertiary education (OR 0.40; 95% CI 0.35–0.47, p < 0.001). The association was stronger in females, middle-aged individuals and in Central and Eastern Europe while not apparent in Northern Europe. Our findings suggest that individuals with higher education might be protected against anxiety throughout life. The protective effect of education against anxiety symptoms is more pronounced in less egalitarian regions and in females.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10432412
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-104324122023-08-18 Educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older Europeans Chlapecka, Adam Wolfová, Katrin Fryčová, Barbora Cermakova, Pavla Sci Rep Article We examined the relationship between educational attainment (EA) and anxiety symptoms in a sample of 77,792 individuals (median age = 64 years, 55% female) from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Using logistic regression, we estimated odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association between EA (7 educational levels based on International Standard Classification of Education) and anxiety symptoms (12 or more points from the shortened 5-item version of the Beck Anxiety Inventory), adjusting for sociodemographic and health-related factors. We further explored whether the relationship varied by region, sex and age group. Independent of sociodemographic and health-related factors, higher levels of EA were associated with lower odds of anxiety symptoms. The magnitude of this association plateaued at first stage of tertiary education (OR 0.40; 95% CI 0.35–0.47, p < 0.001). The association was stronger in females, middle-aged individuals and in Central and Eastern Europe while not apparent in Northern Europe. Our findings suggest that individuals with higher education might be protected against anxiety throughout life. The protective effect of education against anxiety symptoms is more pronounced in less egalitarian regions and in females. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10432412/ /pubmed/37587157 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40196-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Chlapecka, Adam
Wolfová, Katrin
Fryčová, Barbora
Cermakova, Pavla
Educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older Europeans
title Educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older Europeans
title_full Educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older Europeans
title_fullStr Educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older Europeans
title_full_unstemmed Educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older Europeans
title_short Educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older Europeans
title_sort educational attainment and anxiety in middle-aged and older europeans
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10432412/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37587157
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40196-4
work_keys_str_mv AT chlapeckaadam educationalattainmentandanxietyinmiddleagedandoldereuropeans
AT wolfovakatrin educationalattainmentandanxietyinmiddleagedandoldereuropeans
AT frycovabarbora educationalattainmentandanxietyinmiddleagedandoldereuropeans
AT cermakovapavla educationalattainmentandanxietyinmiddleagedandoldereuropeans