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Patterns of Psycho-Social Distress Among Ageing Swedes

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Abstract

This paper examines psycho-social distress among middle-aged and elderly Swedes. We analysed data on 3221 individuals who were 55 to 99 years old. Based on a latent class analysis, we identified four latent classes. Two classes were associated with higher levels of psycho-social problem accumulation. The class with the lowest level of problem accumulation contained the greatest number of individuals, whereas the classes with the highest level of psycho-social distress contained the least number of individuals. The analysis showed that being a man, being married, being a native Swede, or having several hobbies was associated with a low likelihood of belonging to a latent class that was characterised by psycho-social distress. Moreover, being a woman, being between 55 and 65 years of age, or being a widow was associated with a high likelihood of belonging to a latent class that was characterised by the highest levels of problem accumulation.

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Notes

  1. More information on the living conditions survey may be found at http://www.scb.se/en_/Finding-statistics/Statistics-by-subject-area/Living-conditions/Living-conditions/Living-Conditions-Surveys-ULFSILC/.

  2. A more detailed description of this method may be found in statistics textbooks (e.g., Agresti 2013; Hosmer et al. 2013).

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Correspondence to Miia Bask.

Additional information

This paper benefited from comments by Mikael Bask, Björn Halleröd and two anonymous reviewers. I am also grateful to the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS) at Stanford University for the opportunity to finalise this paper during an extended research visit at IRiSS. The usual disclaimer applies. (Version: March 27th, 2015.)

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Bask, M. Patterns of Psycho-Social Distress Among Ageing Swedes. Population Ageing 8, 261–278 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-015-9124-0

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