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Desperation indicators – depression, suicidal ideation, drug use and alcohol – are on the rise in Americans in their late thirties and early forties in most demographic groups, according to a new study by Lauren Gaydosh , Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health and Society and Public Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University. These results suggest that the increase in "desperate deaths" observed among middle-aged, low-educated, white-collar baby boomers (born in 1946-1964) in recent studies could begin to have a wider impact on the youngest members of Generation X (born in 1974-1983). in the years to come.
The study entitled "The Depths of Despair Among US Adults in Their 40s" appears in the American Journal of Public Health. The co-authors of Gaydosh are Kathleen Mullan Harris, Robert A. Hummer, Taylor W. Hargrove, Carolyn T. Halpern, Jon M. Hussey, Eric A. Whitsel and Nancy Dole, all at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In 2016, life expectancy in the United States began to decline for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century and researchers speculated that this increase was due to an increase in The number of deaths due to drug overdose, alcoholic cirrhosis, and suicide among middle-aged, low-educated, or rural women, is high. At the time, this was explained by a unique triple impact on the deterioration of employment prospects, accompanied by a declining perception of socio-economic status and erosion. social media for this group. However, studies to better understand these trends in mortality do not conclusively show that rural low-income whites are actually more desperate than other groups.
"What we wanted to do in this article was to examine whether the factors that predict these causes of death – substance use, suicidal ideation and depression – are isolated in this subgroup of the population, or whether it is this is a more generalized phenomenon. "Gaydosh said.
To do this, they turned to the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health to Adults, or Add Health, led by Harris at the University of North Carolina, which traces the physical and mental health of thousands of Americans born between 1974 and 1983 between adolescence and adulthood. their late 30s and early 40s in 2016-18.
"We found that desperation had increased in this cohort, but that this increase was not limited to non-Hispanic whites with low levels of education," Gaydosh said. "Instead, the increase in hopelessness that occurs in the 1930s is widespread across the cohort, regardless of race, ethnicity, education, and age. of geography. "
While alcohol, addiction, and mental health patterns varied by race and level of education – whites were more likely to consume alcohol during adolescence , while Hispanics and African Americans of all ages were more likely to report depressive symptoms, for example – the patterns were broadly the same. Unsurprisingly, adolescence was a difficult time for everyone, followed by a period of improvement in their twenties. By the end of their 30s, indicators of hopelessness tended to rise in all areas and were sometimes higher among minorities than among less educated whites or rural adults.
Gaydosh and his colleagues believe that these results should be of concern as they suggest that mid-life mortality may begin to increase in a wide range of demographic groups. "Public health efforts to reduce these indicators of despair should not be aimed solely at whites in rural areas, for example," she said, "because we find that these patterns are generalizing across the board. Population".
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Material provided by Vanderbilt University. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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