This study employs a cross-sectional observational study design to
investigate the social determinants of depression using data from the
European Social Survey (ESS) Wave 11. The analysis focuses on the
relationship between depressive symptoms, measured through the CES- D8
scale, and two key independent variables: the frequency of social
meetings and alcohol consumption. This design allows for an exploration
of the associations between the variables at a single point in time,
providing valuable insights into their potential relationships within a
defined population.
Hypothesis 1: Higher frequency of social meetings is associated with
lower levels of depressive symptoms.
Hypothesis 2: Higher alcohol consumption is associated with increased
levels of depressive symptoms.
Data sample from Germany
## [1] 2420
Distribution of gender and histogram of age distribution
##
## Male Female
## 1214 1206
#### CES-D8 (depresion scale) summary
##
## Cronbach's alpha for the 'df_de[, c("d20", "d21", "d22", "d23", "d24", "d25", "d26", "d27")]' data-set
##
## Items: 8
## Sample units: 2420
## alpha: 0.794
## Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's
## 1.000 1.375 1.625 1.697 1.875 4.000 21
##
## 1 1.125 1.25 1.375 1.5 1.625 1.75 1.875 2 2.125 2.25 2.375 2.5
## 66 148 225 339 339 274 226 216 142 118 77 42 51
## 2.625 2.75 2.875 3 3.125 3.25 3.375 3.5 3.625 3.75 3.875 4
## 31 33 20 13 10 5 6 7 5 2 2 2
Kruscal test of depression and alcohol frequency
##
## Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test
##
## data: df_de$depression and df_de$alcfreq
## Kruskal-Wallis chi-squared = 53.529, df = 6, p-value = 9.182e-10
Kruscal test of depression and alcohol frequency
##
## Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test
##
## data: df_de$depression and df_de$sclmeet
## Kruskal-Wallis chi-squared = 96.496, df = 6, p-value < 2.2e-16
Linear regression models for Model 1 -depression and social
meet-
##
## Call:
## lm(formula = df_de$depression ~ df_de$sclmeet + df_de$alcfreq,
## data = df_de)
##
## Coefficients:
## (Intercept) df_de$sclmeetLess than once a month
## 2.08646 -0.16264
## df_de$sclmeetOnce a month df_de$sclmeetSeveral times a month
## -0.35539 -0.41599
## df_de$sclmeetOnce a week df_de$sclmeetSeveral times a week
## -0.40837 -0.48466
## df_de$sclmeetEvery day df_de$alcfreqSeveral times a week
## -0.54007 -0.03723
## df_de$alcfreqOnce a week df_de$alcfreq2-3 times a month
## -0.02129 0.02296
## df_de$alcfreqOnce a month df_de$alcfreqLess than once a month
## 0.02111 0.10430
## df_de$alcfreqNever
## 0.15361
##
## Call:
## lm(formula = df_de$depression ~ df_de$sclmeet + df_de$alcfreq +
## df_de$gndr, data = df_de)
##
## Coefficients:
## (Intercept) df_de$sclmeetLess than once a month
## 2.089374 -0.178175
## df_de$sclmeetOnce a month df_de$sclmeetSeveral times a month
## -0.368777 -0.433938
## df_de$sclmeetOnce a week df_de$sclmeetSeveral times a week
## -0.424365 -0.502075
## df_de$sclmeetEvery day df_de$alcfreqSeveral times a week
## -0.554061 -0.049167
## df_de$alcfreqOnce a week df_de$alcfreq2-3 times a month
## -0.044031 -0.006850
## df_de$alcfreqOnce a month df_de$alcfreqLess than once a month
## -0.008461 0.071542
## df_de$alcfreqNever df_de$gndrFemale
## 0.119917 0.075227
Summary, std error, adj error and Pvalue for Model 1 -depression,
social meet, alcohol frequency-
##
## Call:
## lm(formula = df_de$depression ~ df_de$sclmeet + df_de$alcfreq,
## data = df_de)
##
## Residuals:
## Min 1Q Median 3Q Max
## -1.11507 -0.31659 -0.07408 0.22522 2.30656
##
## Coefficients:
## Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
## (Intercept) 2.08646 0.08904 23.433 < 2e-16 ***
## df_de$sclmeetLess than once a month -0.16264 0.08996 -1.808 0.070733 .
## df_de$sclmeetOnce a month -0.35539 0.08759 -4.057 5.12e-05 ***
## df_de$sclmeetSeveral times a month -0.41599 0.08395 -4.955 7.73e-07 ***
## df_de$sclmeetOnce a week -0.40837 0.08468 -4.822 1.51e-06 ***
## df_de$sclmeetSeveral times a week -0.48466 0.08356 -5.800 7.52e-09 ***
## df_de$sclmeetEvery day -0.54007 0.08797 -6.139 9.67e-10 ***
## df_de$alcfreqSeveral times a week -0.03723 0.04306 -0.865 0.387298
## df_de$alcfreqOnce a week -0.02129 0.04311 -0.494 0.621442
## df_de$alcfreq2-3 times a month 0.02296 0.04517 0.508 0.611270
## df_de$alcfreqOnce a month 0.02111 0.04902 0.431 0.666749
## df_de$alcfreqLess than once a month 0.10430 0.04472 2.332 0.019771 *
## df_de$alcfreqNever 0.15361 0.04448 3.453 0.000564 ***
## ---
## Signif. codes: 0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1
##
## Residual standard error: 0.4526 on 2379 degrees of freedom
## (28 observations deleted due to missingness)
## Multiple R-squared: 0.07135, Adjusted R-squared: 0.06667
## F-statistic: 15.23 on 12 and 2379 DF, p-value: < 2.2e-16
Summary, std error, adj error and Pvalue for Model 2 -depression,
social meet, alcohol frequency and gender-
##
## Call:
## lm(formula = df_de$depression ~ df_de$sclmeet + df_de$alcfreq +
## df_de$gndr, data = df_de)
##
## Residuals:
## Min 1Q Median 3Q Max
## -1.15952 -0.30650 -0.06416 0.21999 2.34345
##
## Coefficients:
## Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
## (Intercept) 2.089374 0.088775 23.536 < 2e-16 ***
## df_de$sclmeetLess than once a month -0.178175 0.089774 -1.985 0.04729 *
## df_de$sclmeetOnce a month -0.368777 0.087393 -4.220 2.54e-05 ***
## df_de$sclmeetSeveral times a month -0.433938 0.083819 -5.177 2.44e-07 ***
## df_de$sclmeetOnce a week -0.424365 0.084527 -5.020 5.54e-07 ***
## df_de$sclmeetSeveral times a week -0.502075 0.083429 -6.018 2.04e-09 ***
## df_de$sclmeetEvery day -0.554061 0.087774 -6.312 3.27e-10 ***
## df_de$alcfreqSeveral times a week -0.049167 0.043034 -1.143 0.25335
## df_de$alcfreqOnce a week -0.044031 0.043372 -1.015 0.31012
## df_de$alcfreq2-3 times a month -0.006850 0.045669 -0.150 0.88079
## df_de$alcfreqOnce a month -0.008461 0.049451 -0.171 0.86416
## df_de$alcfreqLess than once a month 0.071542 0.045361 1.577 0.11489
## df_de$alcfreqNever 0.119917 0.045170 2.655 0.00799 **
## df_de$gndrFemale 0.075227 0.019156 3.927 8.84e-05 ***
## ---
## Signif. codes: 0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1
##
## Residual standard error: 0.4513 on 2378 degrees of freedom
## (28 observations deleted due to missingness)
## Multiple R-squared: 0.07733, Adjusted R-squared: 0.07229
## F-statistic: 15.33 on 13 and 2378 DF, p-value: < 2.2e-16
Conclusion
In conclusion, this study highlights the significant associations
between social engagement, alcohol consumption, and depressive symptoms,
while also underscoring the importance of considering gender
differences. The findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge
on mental health determinants and open avenues for future research to
refine these relationships by incorporating additional factors and
methodological approaches. Furthermore, the results support Hypothesis
H1, confirming its validity, while for Hypothesis H2, we cannot reject
the null hypothesis.