The Relationship between Depression and Other Variables Including Income and Bank Deposits: A study using the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR)

         
Author Name SEKIZAWA Yoichi  (Senior Fellow, RIETI) /YOSHITAKE Naomi  (Ochanomizu University) /GOTO Yasuo  (Senior Fellow, RIETI)
Creation Date/NO. December 2013 13-J-077
Research Project Research Project on Mental Health from the Perspective of Human Capital
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Abstract

This study investigated the association between depressive symptoms and variables related to socio-economic status (SES) in middle-aged and elderly Japanese, focusing on the differences between men and women. We used data from the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR). Depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Income and bank deposits were divided into four categories according to their amounts. After adjusting for age, number of illnesses, sex, marital status, education, employment status, house owning, existence of loan, and smoking status, the CES-D scores of the lowest income category are significantly higher than those of the other three categories for men. On the other hand, the association is not clear for women. Regarding bank deposits, there was no significant difference in the CES-D scores among the four categories of bank deposit amounts for men. However, CES-D scores of the lowest bank deposit category were significantly higher than the upper two categories for women.