Frequency of stressful life events and associations with mental health and general subjective health in the general population

Ana Nanette Tibubos,Susanne Singer,Philipp S Wild,Claus Jünger,Matthias Michal,Jörg Wiltink,Elmar Brähler,Eva M Klein,Thomas Münzel,Juliane Burghardt,Manfred E Beutel,Norbert Pfeiffer

doi:10.1007/s10389-020-01204-3

Abstract

AimWe aim to determine the frequency of stressful life events (SLEs) and investigate the association of single and aggregated SLEs with mental health and general subjective health, which has not been reported for an aging representative sample to date.Subjects and methodsA total of 12,947 participants (35–74 years old) of the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) in Germany were analyzed. SLEs were analyzed at the item and aggregated level with unweighted and weighted sum scores. Additionally, the survey included measures of mental health, general subjective health and demographics. Descriptive analyses were stratified by sex, age and socioeconomic status.ResultsMultivariate analyses of variance with SLE at the item level revealed large main effects for sex (ηp2 = 0.30) and age (ηp2 = 0.30); a moderate effect was found for socioeconomic status (ηp2 = 0.08). Interaction effects of sex with age and SES were also significant, but with negligible effect sizes. Regression analyses revealed similar results for unweighted and weighted SLE sum scores controlling for sociodemographic variables, supporting the detrimental relations among cumulated SLEs, depression (β = 0.18/0.19) and anxiety (β =0.17/0.17), but not general health. Mental health indicators showed the highest correlations with single SLEs such as change of sleep habits or personal finances. Severe SLEs according to proposed weight scores showed no or only weak associations with mental health.ConclusionRepresentative data support a more distinct impact of SLEs on mental health than on general health. Single SLEs show strong associations with mental health outcome (e.g., change of sleep habits). The low associations between severe single SLEs and mental health merit further attention.

Highlights

Life events are significant occurrences, often with farreaching consequences
Stressful life events are assumed to have a negative impact on health resulting in higher distress and lower self-reported general health
Descriptive statistics for all items of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) are displayed in Table S1 for all participants referring to the frequency of live events which occurred in the past year

Summary

Introduction

Life events are significant occurrences, often with farreaching consequences. They take place with or necessitate changes in behavioral patterns (Filipp 1995; Holmes and Rahe 1967). Normative life events comprise puberty, marriage, relocation, parenthood, entering the labor market, retirement or the death of the parents. They are expected or of a high probability for most people at a certain age. Examples of non-normative life events are death of a spouse, divorce or unemployment. While non-normative life events have a moderate occurrence probability, normative life events are more likely (Filipp 1995).

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