Mental health in childhood and adolescence in association to sickness absence and disability pension

Abstract

Abstract Background A large amount of studies have previously reported associations between sociodemographic, socioeconomic, health- and work-related factors and future sickness absence (SA) or disability pension (DP). However, the knowledge is still scarce regarding the associations between mental health problems and disorders during childhood and adolescence in association to future work incapacity, and regarding the role of familial influences on the associations. Methods The studies were based on 2,690 twins born 1985-1986 in Sweden who participated in the Twin Study of CHild and Adolescent Development (TCHAD). The twins were followed repeatedly at ages of 8-9, 13-14, 16-17, and 19-20 years. The presence of depressive, anxiety, rule-breaking, and social phobia symptoms were assessed through self-reports. SA and DP data were obtained from national registries. Group-based trajectory, logistic regression and Cox proportional regression analyses were applied. Results More than half of the twins that were on SA or granted DP had stable moderate levels of the mental health symptoms during adolescence. Cox regression analyses showed that rule-breaking behavior was associated with a higher risk for SA with the highest HR of 1.12 (95% CI 1.05-1.19) at age of 8-9 years. High levels of anxious and depressive symptoms were associated with DP despite age at symptom assessment. The associations attenuated slightly when familial factors were taken into account. The association between social phobia and SA was to some extent explained by sex and parental education except for when social phobia was measured at ages 19-20 years (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.10-1.34). The results changed slightly when further adjusting for familial factors. Conclusions Familial factors had no major importance for the studied associations. Hence, early life public health interventions to improve mental health might reduce the risk of future work incapacity in young adulthood.