aging and retirement in Europe; alignment optimization; depression; exact or approximate measurement equivalence; mental health policy; multigroup confirmatory factor analysis; older populations; survey on health
Abstract :
[en] Most of the countries in Europe are experiencing a rapid aging of their populations and with this an increase in mental health challenges due to aging. Comparative research may help countries to assess the promotion of healthy aging in general, and mentally healthy aging in particular, and explore ways for adapting mental health policy measures. However, the comparative study of mental health indicators requires that the groups understand the survey questions inquiring about their mental health in the same way and display similar response patterns. Otherwise, observed differences in perceived mental health may not reflect true differences but rather cultural bias in the health measures. To date, research on cross-country equivalence of depression measures among older populations has received very limited attention. Thus, there is a growing need for the cross-country validation of existing depression measures using samples of the older population and establishing measurement equivalence of the assessment tools. Indeed, insights on mental health outcomes and how they compare across societies is paramount to inform policy makers seeking to improve mental health conditions of the populations. This study, therefore, aims to examine measurement equivalence of self-reported depressive symptoms among older populations in 17 European countries and Israel. The data for the current analysis are from the sixth wave (2015) of the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and consist of the population of respondents 50 years of age and older. The measurement of depression is based on the EURO-D scale, which was developed by a European consortium. It identifies existing depressive symptoms and consists of the 12 items: depression, pessimism, suicidality, guilt, sleep, interest, irritability, appetite, fatigue, concentration, enjoyment, and tearfulness. We examine the cross-country comparability of these data by testing for measurement equivalence using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) and alignment. Our findings reveal partial equivalence thus allowing us to draw meaningful conclusions on similarities and differences among the older population across 18 countries on the EURO-D measure of depression. Findings are discussed in light of policy implications for universal access to mental health care across countries.
Disciplines :
Sociology & social sciences
Author, co-author :
MASKILEYSON, Dina ✱; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC) > Political Science ; Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Seddig, Daniel ✱; Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Davidov, Eldad ✱; Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany ; Department of Sociology and URPP Social Networks, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland ; The Minerva Center on Intersectionality in Aging, Haifa, Israel
✱ These authors have contributed equally to this work.
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
The EURO-D Measure of Depressive Symptoms in the Aging Population: Comparability Across European Countries and Israel
The authors would like to thank Lisa Trierweiler for the English proof of the manuscript. This paper uses data from SHARE Wave 6 (DOI: 10.6103/ SHARE.w6.710), see Börsch-Supan et al. (2013) for methodological details. The SHARE data collection has been funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193, COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857, SHARELIFE: CIT4-CT-2006-028812), FP7 (SHARE-PREP: GA N°211909, SHARE-LEAP: GA N°227822, SHARE M4: GA N°261982, DASISH: GA N°283646), Horizon 2020 (SHARE-DEV3: GA N°676536, SHARE-COHESION: GA N°870628, SERISS: GA N°654221, SSHOC: GA N°823782), and by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. Additional funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Institute on Aging (U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG005842, P01_AG08291, P30_AG12815, R21_AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG_BSR06-11, OGHA_04-064, HHSN271201300071C), and from various national funding sources is gratefully acknowledged (see www. share-project.org). ED would like to thank the University of Zurich Research Priority Program “Social Networks” for their financial support during work on this study.
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