More money more problems. Rates of depression are much higher in countries with higher income rates overall. About 121 million people worldwide have depression, which can harm people’s quality of life by affecting their ability to work and form relationships. Severe depression can lead to suicide and causes 850,000 deaths every year.
In the United States, France, Netherlands and India the depressions was highest globally at 30%, while China had the lowest rate of major depression at 12% overall.
Evelyn Bromet, of the State University of New York at Stony Brook comments:
“We have shown that depression is a significant public-health concern across all regions of the world and is strongly linked to social conditions. Understanding the patterns and causes of depression can help global initiatives in reducing the impact of depression on individual lives and in reducing the burden to society.”
Higher incomes can be related to more work hours and a lowered quality of life according to research. Detailed interviews with more than 89,000 people in 18 nations revealed that 15% of people in high income countries were likely to get depression during their lifetime, compared with 11% of those in low or middle income countries.
Also, the average age at onset of depression was nearly two years younger in low income countries and women were twice as likely as men to suffer depression. The major contributing factor to this phenomenon was loss of a partner because of death, divorce or separation.
There are a lot of people without jobs right now. However, maybe it is not the worst thing after all. According to a seperate study, your health is directly related to your happiness and dead end jobs that drive you nuts may be worse for your overall health than not working at all.
A study was conducted on Australians, well known to have some of the best quality of life scores on the planet. Researchers analyzed data from more than 7,000 people of working age in Australia and were not surprised to find that those who were unemployed had poorer mental health overall than those with jobs. However, the study authors also found that the mental health of people with badly paid, poorly supported or short-term jobs could be as bad as, or even worse, than that of those who were jobless.
The study’s authors write:
“Work first policies are based on the notion that any job is better than none as work promotes economic as well as personal wellbeing. Psychosocial job quality is a pivotal factor that needs to be considered in the design and delivery of employment and welfare policy.”
Mental health plummeted over time in those persons working at dead end jobs or ones they loathed heading to from home. The researchers found a direct association between the number of unfavorable working conditions and mental health, with each additional negative job aspect reducing a person’s mental health score.
For unemployed people, the health benefits of finding a job depended on the quality of the job. Getting a high quality job after being unemployed boosted mental health by an average of three points, but getting a poor quality job led to a mental health decline of five points.
Sources:
Written by Sy Kraft