Prevalence and associated factors of depressive and anxiety symptoms in two birth cohorts born 20 years apart

Abstract Purpose Evidence on population-level trends in depressive and anxiety symptoms remains limited and heterogeneous. We aimed to compare the prevalence and associated factors of these symptoms in two population-based samples. Methods We compared prevalence and associated factors of depressive and anxiety symptoms among males and females between the Northern Finland Birth Cohorts 1966 (NFBC1966, 3901 males and 4170 females) and 1986 (NFBC1986, 1180 males and 1888 females). Hopkins Symptom Checklist was used to measure depressive and anxiety symptoms at the age of 31–34 years. We also studied associations between sociodemographic and health behavioral variables and symptoms. Results The cohort born 20 years later had more frequent depressive symptoms (males: 12.7% vs. 9.0%, females: 19.7% vs. 13.0%) than the earlier cohort. Females of NFBC1986 also had more anxiety symptoms (14.0% vs. 9.0%), whereas there was no difference among males (males: 8.0% vs. 7.7%). The highest adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for depressive symptoms among males was among those not working, and among females, among those with heavy alcohol use in both cohorts. Regarding anxiety symptoms, among males, those not working had the highest AOR in the earlier cohort and among individuals with heavy alcohol use in the later cohort. Among females, the highest AOR was among heavy alcohol users in the earlier cohort, and among daily smokers in the later cohort Conclusion Over 20 years, depressive symptoms have increased among both sexes, and anxiety symptoms among females. These findings may help identify population subgroups in which symptom burden has changed over time.