Health Service Use among Individuals with Depression and Psychological Distress: A Population-Based Cohort Study in Ontario, Canada: Utilisation des services de santé par les personnes souffrant de dépression et de détresse psychologique : une étude de cohorte dans la population de l'Ontario, Canada

Parental drinking, mental health and education, and extent of offspring's healthcare utilisation for anxiety/depression: A HUNT survey and registry study

AIMS

Certain risk constellations of parental drinking, mental health and years of education are prospectively associated with offspring's risk for a diagnosis of anxiety/depression, but it remains unknown how they may relate to other aspects of offspring's mental health. We examined whether such risk constellations were also prospectively associated with the extent of offspring's utilisation of healthcare services for anxiety/depression.

METHODS

The sample included 8773 adolescent offspring of 6696 two-parent families who participated in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study in Norway. The exposures consisted of five parental risk constellations characterised by drinking frequencies and quantities, years of education and mental health previously derived based on the parental self-reports using latent profile analysis. The outcomes were the number of years in contact, and the total number of consultations/visits, with healthcare services for anxiety/depression in adolescents and young adults as recorded in healthcare registries in the period 2008-2014. Associations were examined using zero-inflated negative binomial regression models, accounting for demographics and offspring's early mental health.

RESULTS

Parental risk constellations were not significantly associated with the extent of offspring's healthcare utilisation for anxiety/depression during the seven-year study period, neither in respect of number of years nor in number of contacts.

CONCLUSIONS

Offspring of four risky constellations were no more likely to use healthcare services for longer time periods or have more consultations/visits than offspring of the lowest-risk constellation. Parental risk constellations appear more informative for understanding disorder aetiology than for understanding management and treatment of anxiety and depression during adolescence and early adulthood.

Sport Participation, Extracurricular Activity Involvement, and Psychological Distress: A Latent Class Analysis of Canadian High School Student-Athletes

Although psychological distress has been shown to increase during adolescence, participation in organized activities may have protective effects. The present study aimed to identify whether there is a relationship between high school student-athletes’ breadth of participation in organized activities and psychological distress, using a latent class analysis. Canadian adolescent-athletes (n = 930) in Grades 11 and 12 completed an online survey that measured: (a) high school sport participation, (b) community sport participation, (c) nonsport extracurricular activities participation, and (d) psychological distress. The latent class analysis indicated that a two-class model (i.e., Class 1 = narrower breadth, low distress; Class 2 = wider breadth, moderate distress) was most appropriate. Results indicated that despite the divergent probability of organized activity participation, participants in both classes had a low to moderate probability of presenting elevated levels of psychological distress. However, levels of psychological distress were still higher than other Canadian adolescent populations, suggesting that overscheduling could be of concern. Gender and time (i.e., prior/during COVID-19 pandemic) were significant covariates in the model.