Negative life events and depression by gender in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brazil)

Objective  Gender differences may interfere with the association between Negative Life Events (NLEs) and prevalent/incident depression. This study evaluated the effect of gender in this association using data from the ELSA-Brazil cohort.

Methods  The authors analyzed 15,088 participants (mean age, 52.1 (9.1), 54.4 % women). NLEs (robbery, hospitalization, death of a close relative, financial hardship, and rupture of a love relationship) were accessed at baseline. Depression was assessed at baseline and follow-ups. The authors built logistic (Odds Ratio [OR], 95 % Confidence Interval [95 % CI]) and Poisson regression models (Relative Risk [RR], [95 % CI]) to evaluate this association.

Results  Women reported more NLEs compared to men. The authors found associations between NLEs and prevalent depression: for men, hospitalization (OR = 1.83; 95 % CI 1.16‒2.91), financial hardship (OR = 2.42; 95 % CI 1.69‒3.49), rupture of a love relationship (OR = 2.54; 95 % CI 1.50‒4.29), and any NLE (OR = 2.30; 95 % CI 1.59‒3.35); and for women, robbery (OR = 1.81; 95 % CI 1.31‒2.49), hospitalization (OR = 1.46; 95 % CI 1.11‒1.92), financial hardship (OR = 1.76; 95 % CI 1.43‒2.17), rupture of a love relationship (OR = 1.66; 95 % CI 1.20‒2.32), and any NLE (OR = 1.65; 95 % CI 1.34‒2.04). For incident depression only financial hardship (RR = 2.09; 95 % CI 1.55‒2.83) was associated with depression in men, while, for women, robbery (RR = 1.54; 95 % CI 1.16‒2.04); hospitalization (RR = 1.36; 95 % CI 1.07‒1.74), financial hardship (RR = 1.37; 95 % CI 1.14‒1.65), and any NLE (RR = 1.25; 95 % CI 1.04‒1.49) were associated with incident depression. No association was found between the death of a close relative and prevalent/incident depression.

Conclusion  NLEs were associated with depression in men and women, with a higher impact in the latter.

Keywords
Negative Life Events; Stressful Life Events; Stress; Prevalent Depression; Incident Depression; Gender

NLEs were associated with prevalent depression in men and women.

NLEs were associated to incident depression in women

Only financial hardship was associated to incident depression in men.

LIMITATIONS

NLEs questionnaire was self-reported with possible memory bias.

Depression was defined by validated scale but some misclassification is possible.