Data Analysis and Related Applications, Volume 1

29Predicting Changes in Depression Levels Following the European Economic Downturn of 2008

The economic crisis occurring in Europe since 2008 has caused major changes to people’s lives. Past studies found that mental health disorders have risen during periods of economic recession for both genders in Europe while others have supported that males are more vulnerable compared to females. The target of this study is to assess the depression imprint for a large sample of Europeans after the 2008 crisis. The sample studied in the analysis comes from the database of SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe), a multidisciplinary longitudinal and cross-national database including material regarding health, socioeconomic and demographic information of individuals aged 50 or higher, resident in several European countries. The selection of respondents included those participating both in wave 2, carried out in 2006–2007 and wave 6, completed in 2015, covering cross-national material in two time periods, just before and after the economic recession. For the purposes of the analysis, multinomial logistic regression models were applied for the total sample and separately by gender, using SPSS 20. Special attention is given to the concurrent factors being associated with the depression burden in older ages, covering different domains of life, before and after economic recession. Findings indicate that health predictors including mobility limitations, instrumental activities ...