TY - JOUR
T1 - Lower social participation partly explains the association between perceived neighbourhood crime and depressive symptoms in European adults aged 50 years or older: a longitudinal mediation analysis
AU - Baranyi, Gergo
AU - Sieber, Stefan
AU - Pearce, Jamie
AU - Cullati, Stéphane
AU - Dibben, Chris
AU - Cheval, Boris
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper uses data from SHARE Waves 1, 2, 4, 5,6, 7 and 8 (DOIs: 10..6103/SHARE.w1.600, 10..6103/SHARE.w2.600, 10..6103/SHARE.w4.600, 10..6103/SHARE.w5.600, 10..6103/SHARE.w6.600, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w7.711 , https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w8cabeta.001 ). The SHARE data collection was primarily funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193, COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857) and FP7 (SHARE-PREP: no.211909, SHARE-LEAP: no.227822, SHARE M4: no.261982). Additional funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Institute on Ageing (U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG005842, P01_AG08291, P30_AG12815, R21_AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG_BSR06-11, OGHA_04-064, HHSN271201300071C) and from various national funding sources is gratefully acknowledged (see www.share-project.org ).
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement ( LONGPOP-Methodologies and Data Mining Techniques for the Analysis of Big Data Based on Longitudinal Population and Epidemiological Registers [grant number 676060 ] to GB and JP). This research also benefitted from the support of the Economic and Social Research Council , UK (grant award ES/T003669/1 to JP and GB). BC is supported by an Ambizione grant ( PZ00P1_180040 ) from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2022/2/1
Y1 - 2022/2/1
N2 - Neighbourhood crime likely increases the risk of developing depression among older adults. However, little is known about the underlying behavioural and social pathways. We examined the association between perceived neighbourhood crime and depressive symptoms and whether this relationship was mediated by health behaviours (physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption) and social participation. Furthermore, we explored differential vulnerability across age, gender, education and household wealth. Data were drawn from six waves of longitudinal data (from 2004/2005 to 2017) of approximately 15,000 adults aged 50 years and older, derived from the multi-national Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Perceived neighbourhood crime and covariates were measured at baseline, time-variant mediators and depressive symptoms across all waves. Confounder-adjusted mediator and outcome models were fitted with mixed-effects models. Total association was decomposed into direct and indirect pathways applying causal mediation analyses with Monte-Carlo simulations. Perceived crime was associated with higher risk of depressive symptoms; 4.6% of the effect was mediated via lower engagement in social activities (b = 0.005; 95% CI: 0.001–0.009). No mediation was detected through physical activity, smoking or alcohol consumption. Exploratory analyses revealed that the mediating role of social participation was more pronounced among participants with low household wealth (b = 0.012; 95% CI: 0.004–0.023; 7.3% mediated). Lower engagement in social activities partly explained the association between perceived neighbourhood crime and depressive symptoms in adults aged 50 years or older. Policies targeting disadvantaged communities to prevent crime and support social participation might be beneficial for population mental health, especially among financially vulnerable older residents.
AB - Neighbourhood crime likely increases the risk of developing depression among older adults. However, little is known about the underlying behavioural and social pathways. We examined the association between perceived neighbourhood crime and depressive symptoms and whether this relationship was mediated by health behaviours (physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption) and social participation. Furthermore, we explored differential vulnerability across age, gender, education and household wealth. Data were drawn from six waves of longitudinal data (from 2004/2005 to 2017) of approximately 15,000 adults aged 50 years and older, derived from the multi-national Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Perceived neighbourhood crime and covariates were measured at baseline, time-variant mediators and depressive symptoms across all waves. Confounder-adjusted mediator and outcome models were fitted with mixed-effects models. Total association was decomposed into direct and indirect pathways applying causal mediation analyses with Monte-Carlo simulations. Perceived crime was associated with higher risk of depressive symptoms; 4.6% of the effect was mediated via lower engagement in social activities (b = 0.005; 95% CI: 0.001–0.009). No mediation was detected through physical activity, smoking or alcohol consumption. Exploratory analyses revealed that the mediating role of social participation was more pronounced among participants with low household wealth (b = 0.012; 95% CI: 0.004–0.023; 7.3% mediated). Lower engagement in social activities partly explained the association between perceived neighbourhood crime and depressive symptoms in adults aged 50 years or older. Policies targeting disadvantaged communities to prevent crime and support social participation might be beneficial for population mental health, especially among financially vulnerable older residents.
U2 - 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.106954
DO - 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.106954
M3 - Article
VL - 155
JO - Preventive Medicine
JF - Preventive Medicine
SN - 0091-7435
M1 - 106954
ER -