Trajectories of depression across key events in later life: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Background Various key events characterise experiences in later life, such as retirement, bereavement, caregiving, developing long-term conditions and hospital admission. Given their potential to disrupt lives, such events may affect older people’s mental health, but research on the associations between such events and depression has produced inconsistent findings. Aims To investigate the impact of key events in later life on depression trajectories in a representative cohort of people aged 50–69 in England. Method Our sample draws on 6890 respondents aged 50–69 in Wave 1 (2002/2003) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, following them through to Wave 9 (2018/2019). We measured depression using the eight-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale. Later life events included retirement, spouse/partner death, becoming an unpaid caregiver, developing a limiting long-term illness and hospital admissions because of a fall or non-fall causes. Piecewise mixed-effects logistic regression models tested for changes in the trajectories of depression before and after each event. Results Statistically significant improvements in the trajectory of depression were observed following spousal bereavement, one’s own retirement and hospital admission because of causes other than falls, with reductions in the odds of depression of 48% (odds ratio: 0.52 (95% CI: 0.44–0.61)), 15% (0.85 (0.78–0.92)) and 4% (0.96 (0.94–0.99)), respectively. No changes were associated with developing a limiting long-term illness, becoming an unpaid caregiver or following spousal retirement or a hospital admission because of a fall. Conclusions The findings highlight the relative resilience among older adults in England in terms of depression following key later life events. There is still a role to play in delivering mental health support for older people following such events, particularly by improving the identification of those at risk of certain events as part of a broader strategy of prevention. Findings also underscore the importance of partner/spousal circumstances on individual mental health.