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Wealth, justice and freedom: Objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries
BACKGROUND: Macro-level factors (MF) such as wealth, justice and freedom measured with objective country-level indicators (objective MF), for instance the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), have been investigated in relation to health and well-being, but rarely in connection with depression, anxiety and...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5769050/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29349252 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.07.010 |
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author | Scholten, Saskia Velten, Julia Neher, Torsten Margraf, Jürgen |
author_facet | Scholten, Saskia Velten, Julia Neher, Torsten Margraf, Jürgen |
author_sort | Scholten, Saskia |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Macro-level factors (MF) such as wealth, justice and freedom measured with objective country-level indicators (objective MF), for instance the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), have been investigated in relation to health and well-being, but rarely in connection with depression, anxiety and stress subsumed as poor mental health. Also, a combination of different objective MF and of how individuals perceive those MF (subjective MF) has not been taken into consideration. In the present study, we combined subjective and objective measures of wealth, justice and freedom and examined their relationship with poor mental health. METHOD: Population-based interviews were conducted in France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, U.K. and U.S.A. (n ≈ 1000 per country). GDP, GINI coefficient, Justice Index and Freedom Index were used as objective MF, whereas subjective MF were perceived wealth, justice and freedom measured at the individual level. Poor mental health was assessed as a combination of symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. RESULTS: In a random-intercept-model, GINI coefficient and Freedom Index were significant positive country-level, and perceived wealth, justice, and freedom significant negative individual-level predictors of symptoms of poor mental health. CONCLUSION: Multiple subjective and objective MF should be combined to assess the macrosystem’s relationship with poor mental health more precisely. The relationship between MF and poor mental health indicates that the macrosystem should be taken into account as relevant context for mental health problems, too. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5769050 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Elsevier |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-57690502018-01-18 Wealth, justice and freedom: Objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries Scholten, Saskia Velten, Julia Neher, Torsten Margraf, Jürgen SSM Popul Health Article BACKGROUND: Macro-level factors (MF) such as wealth, justice and freedom measured with objective country-level indicators (objective MF), for instance the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), have been investigated in relation to health and well-being, but rarely in connection with depression, anxiety and stress subsumed as poor mental health. Also, a combination of different objective MF and of how individuals perceive those MF (subjective MF) has not been taken into consideration. In the present study, we combined subjective and objective measures of wealth, justice and freedom and examined their relationship with poor mental health. METHOD: Population-based interviews were conducted in France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, U.K. and U.S.A. (n ≈ 1000 per country). GDP, GINI coefficient, Justice Index and Freedom Index were used as objective MF, whereas subjective MF were perceived wealth, justice and freedom measured at the individual level. Poor mental health was assessed as a combination of symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. RESULTS: In a random-intercept-model, GINI coefficient and Freedom Index were significant positive country-level, and perceived wealth, justice, and freedom significant negative individual-level predictors of symptoms of poor mental health. CONCLUSION: Multiple subjective and objective MF should be combined to assess the macrosystem’s relationship with poor mental health more precisely. The relationship between MF and poor mental health indicates that the macrosystem should be taken into account as relevant context for mental health problems, too. Elsevier 2017-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC5769050/ /pubmed/29349252 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.07.010 Text en © 2017 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Scholten, Saskia Velten, Julia Neher, Torsten Margraf, Jürgen Wealth, justice and freedom: Objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries |
title | Wealth, justice and freedom: Objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries |
title_full | Wealth, justice and freedom: Objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries |
title_fullStr | Wealth, justice and freedom: Objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries |
title_full_unstemmed | Wealth, justice and freedom: Objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries |
title_short | Wealth, justice and freedom: Objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries |
title_sort | wealth, justice and freedom: objective and subjective measures predicting poor mental health in a study across eight countries |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5769050/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29349252 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.07.010 |
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