Income Volatility and Depressive Symptoms among Elderly Koreans

This study examines the relationship between volatile income and depression, and moderating effects of living arrangements among older adults in South Korea. Using the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, we studied 4123 adults aged 60 or older. Income volatility was defined as the variance of logged income across four assessments from 2006 to 2012. Depression was measured as the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scores in 2012. It was examined whether income volatility was related to depressive symptoms, and whether the association depended on co-residence with children. In results, income volatility was not related to CES-D scores in main-effect models without an interaction term. The relationship between income volatility and depressive symptoms depended on co-residence with children (p < 0.001). Higher income volatility was linked to increased risks of CES-D scores among the elderly living without children (incident rate ratio (IRR): 1.27, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07–1.50, p-value: 0.005) whereas it was related to lower CES-D scores among those co-residing with children (IRR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.52–0.88, p-value: 0.003). Absolute income volatility has detrimental psychological consequences for older adults who live on their own. The finding implies that social protection policies for elderly households that live with an unstable income are needed.