Midlife appears to be a particularly vulnerable phase for experiencing psychological distress, with improved detection and management of mental health in middle age needed to address the issue, the findings of a new longitudinal-based UK study suggest.
Researchers analysed data on 28,362 adults participating in three British birth cohort studies; born in 1946 (n=3093), 1958 (n=13250), and 1970 (n=12019). They examined participants’ reports of their mental health between the ages of 23 and 69 years and modelled their profile of psychological distress using a multilevel regression framework.
The study, published in Psychological Medicine, found that 20% of those born in 1970 (‘Generation X’), 19% of ‘Baby Boomers’ born in 1946, and 15% of Baby Boomers born in 1958 experienced their highest ever levels of adult psychological distress during their 40s and 50s, including symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Among those born in 1958 and 1970, rates of mental ill-health decreased from their early 20s to their early 30s, following which, for all three cohorts, the prevalence of psychological distress increased to its highest levels in midlife (46-53 years).
The 1970 Generation X cohort consistently had the highest rates of mental ill-health during adulthood.
Among those born in 1946, rates of psychological distress were observed to decline as they reached their 60s.
Across all three cohorts, at all ages, rates of psychological distress were higher among women than men.
Study co-author Prof George Ploubidis said: “Generation X were more likely to have psychological distress than the Baby Boomers across their lives. They entered the job market in the late 1980s and early 1990s during a period of recession and high unemployment, and also found it more difficult than earlier generations to get on the housing ladder. As a result, these particular circumstances may have had a lasting effect on the mental health of this generation throughout adulthood.”
