Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Education as a predictor of antidepressant and anxiolytic medication use after bereavement: a population-based record linkage study. |
| Authors: |
Maguire, Aideen, Moriarty, John, O'Reilly, Dermot, McCann, Mark |
| Source: |
Quality of Life Research. May2017, Vol. 26 Issue 5, p1251-1262. 12p. 3 Charts, 1 Graph. |
| Subjects: |
Educational psychology, Tranquilizing drugs, Psychiatric drugs, Antidepressants, Bereavement, Mental health, Quality of life, Life change events, Medical record linkage, Patient education, Research funding |
| Abstract: |
Purpose: Educational attainment has been shown to be positively associated with mental health and a potential buffer to stressful events. One stressful life event likely to affect everyone in their lifetime is bereavement. This paper assesses the effect of educational attainment on mental health post-bereavement.Methods: By utilising large administrative datasets, linking Census returns to death records and prescribed medication data, we analysed the bereavement exposure of 208,332 individuals aged 25-74 years. Two-level multi-level logistic regression models were constructed to determine the likelihood of antidepressant medication use (a proxy of mental ill health) post-bereavement given level of educational attainment.Results: Individuals who are bereaved have greater antidepressant use than those who are not bereaved, with over a quarter (26.5 %) of those bereaved by suicide in receipt of antidepressant medication compared to just 12.4 % of those not bereaved. Within individuals bereaved by a sudden death, those with a university degree or higher qualifications are 73 % less likely to be in receipt of antidepressant medication compared to those with no qualifications, after full adjustment for demographic, socio-economic and area factors (OR 0.27, 95 % CI 0.09,0.75). Higher educational attainment and no qualifications have an equivalent effect for those bereaved by suicide.Conclusions: Education may protect against poor mental health, as measured by the use of antidepressant medication, post-bereavement, except in those bereaved by suicide. This is likely due to the improved cognitive, personal and psychological skills gained from time spent in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: |
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
