Authors:	Tibubos, Ana Nanette Burghardt, Juliane Klein, Eva M. Brähler, Elmar Jünger, Claus Michal, Matthias Wiltink, Jörg Wild, Philipp S. Münzel, Thomas Singer, Susanne Pfeiffer, Norbert Beutel, Manfred E.
Title:	Frequency of stressful life events and associations with mental health and general subjective health in the general population
Online publication date:	22-Sep-2021
Year of first publication:	2021
Language:	english
Abstract:	AIM We aim to determine the frequency of stressful life events (SLEs) and investigate the association of single and aggregated SLEs with mental health and general subjective health, which has not been reported for an aging representative sample to date. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A total of 12,947 participants (35–74 years old) of the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) in Germany were analyzed. SLEs were analyzed at the item and aggregated level with unweighted and weighted sum scores. Additionally, the survey included measures of mental health, general subjective health and demographics. Descriptive analyses were stratified by sex, age and socioeconomic status. RESULTS Multivariate analyses of variance with SLE at the item level revealed large main effects for sex (ηp2 = 0.30) and age (ηp2 = 0.30); a moderate effect was found for socioeconomic status (ηp2 = 0.08). Interaction effects of sex with age and SES were also significant, but with negligible effect sizes. Regression analyses revealed similar results for unweighted and weighted SLE sum scores controlling for sociodemographic variables, supporting the detrimental relations among cumulated SLEs, depression (β = 0.18/0.19) and anxiety (β =0.17/0.17), but not general health. Mental health indicators showed the highest correlations with single SLEs such as change of sleep habits or personal finances. Severe SLEs according to proposed weight scores showed no or only weak associations with mental health. CONCLUSION Representative data support a more distinct impact of SLEs on mental health than on general health. Single SLEs show strong associations with mental health outcome (e.g., change of sleep habits). The low associations between severe single SLEs and mental health merit further attention.
DDC:	610 Medizin 610 Medical sciences
Institution:	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department:	FB 04 Medizin
Place:	Mainz
ROR:	https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI:	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-5917
Version:	Published version
Publication type:	Zeitschriftenaufsatz
License:	CC BY
Information on rights of use:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Journal:	Journal of public health 29
Pages or article number:	1071 1080
Publisher:	Springer
Publisher place:	Berlin u.a.
Issue date:	2021
ISSN:	1613-2238
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01204-3
Publisher DOI:	10.1007/s10389-020-01204-3
Appears in collections:	JGU-Publikationen