Journal Article

Mental Health Following Acquisition of Disability in Adulthood—The Impact of Wealth

Bentley, Rebecca, Kavanagh, Anne Marie, Aitken, Zoe, LaMontagne, Anthony Daniel, Milner, Allison, Krnjacki, Lauren

2015

Overview

Acquisition of a disability in adulthood has been associated with a reduction in mental health. We tested the hypothesis that low wealth prior to disability acquisition is associated with a greater deterioration in mental health than for people with high wealth. We assess whether level of wealth prior to disability acquisition modifies this association using 12 waves of data (2001-2012) from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey--a population-based cohort study of working-age Australians. Eligible participants reported at least two consecutive waves of disability preceded by at least two consecutive waves without disability (1977 participants, 13,518 observations). Fixed-effects linear regression was conducted with a product term between wealth prior to disability (in tertiles) and disability acquisition with the mental health component score of the SF-36 as the outcome. In models adjusted for time-varying confounders, there was evidence of negative effect measure modification by prior wealth of the association between disability acquisition and mental health (interaction term for lowest wealth tertile: -2.2 points, 95% CI -3.1 points, -1.2, p<0.001); low wealth was associated with a greater decline in mental health following disability acquisition (-3.3 points, 95% CI -4.0, -2.5) than high wealth (-1.1 points, 95% CI -1.7, -0.5). The findings suggest that low wealth prior to disability acquisition in adulthood results in a greater deterioration in mental health than among those with high wealth.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adult / Adulthood / Adults / Australia / Cohort Studies / Demographic aspects / Disabilities / Disability / Disabled Persons - psychology / Economic aspects / Economics / Employment / Epidemiology / Family Characteristics / Family income / Female / Gender / Health disparities / Households / Humans / Income / Income distribution / Industrialized nations / Longitudinal Studies / Male / Mental Disorders - economics / Mental Disorders - psychology / Mental health / Mental Health - economics / Middle Aged / Population / Population studies / Psychological aspects / Social research / Socioeconomic Factors / Studies / Surveys and Questionnaires / Work - economics / Work - psychology