To Örebro University

AIMS: The few available studies on early-onset depression and future earnings offer ambiguous findings, and potential sources of heterogeneity are poorly understood. We examined the differences in adult earnings of males and females with and without a history of depressive disorder in adolescence, with specific focuses on (1) future earnings in clinical subtypes of adolescent depression; (2) the growth and distribution of earnings over time within these subgroups and (3) the mediating role of subsequent depressive episodes occurring in early adulthood.

METHODS: Data were drawn from the Uppsala Longitudinal Adolescent Depression Study, a community-based cohort study initiated in Uppsala, Sweden, in the early 1990s. Comprehensive diagnostic assessments were conducted at age 16-17 and in follow-up interviews 15 years later, while consecutive data on earnings for the years 1996 to 2016 (ages 20-40) were drawn from population-based registries. The current study included participants with a history of persistent depressive disorder (PDD) (n = 175), episodic major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 82), subthreshold depression (n = 64) or no depression (n = 218) in adolescence. The association of adolescent depression with earnings in adulthood was analysed using generalised estimating equations. Estimates were adjusted for major child and adolescent psychiatric comorbidities and parental socioeconomic status. The indirect (mediated) effect of depression in early adulthood (ages 19-30) on earnings in mid-adulthood (31-40) was estimated in mediation analysis. The study followed the 'STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology' (STROBE) guidelines.

RESULTS: Earnings across early to middle adulthood were lower for participants with a history of a PDD in adolescence than for their non-depressed peers, with an adjusted ratio of mean earnings of 0.85 (0.77-0.95) for females and 0.76 (0.60-0.95) for males. The differences were consistent over time, and more pronounced in the lower percentiles of the earnings distributions. The association was partially mediated by recurrent depression in early adulthood (48% in total; 61% for females, 29% for males). No reduction in earnings was observed among participants with episodic MDD in adolescence, while results for subthreshold depression were inconclusive.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that future earnings of adolescents with depressive disorders are contingent on the duration and natural long-term course of early-onset depression, emphasising the need for timely and effective interventions to avoid loss of human capital.

Background: The increasing prevalence of psychological health problems among adolescent girls is alarming. Knowledge of beneficial effects of physical activity on psychological health is widespread. Dance is a popular formof exercise that could be a protective factor in preventing and treating symptoms of depression. The aim of thisstudy was to assess the cost-effectiveness of a dance intervention in addition to usual school health services foradolescent girls with internalizing problems, compared with usual school health services alone.

Methods: A cost-utility analysis from a societal perspective based on a randomized controlled intervention trial wasperformed. The setting was a city in central Sweden with a population of 130 000. A total of 112 adolescent girls, 13–18 years old, with internalizing problems participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to intervention (n =59) or control (n = 53) group. The intervention comprised dance twice weekly during eight months in addition to usualschool health services. Costs for the stakeholder of the intervention, treatment effect and healthcare costs wereconsidered. Gained quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were used to measure the effects. Quality of life was measuredwith the Health Utility Index Mark 3. Cost-effectiveness ratios were based on the changes in QALYs and net costs forthe intervention group compared with the control group. Likelihood of cost-effectiveness was calculated.

Results: At 20 months, quality of life had increased by 0.08 units more in the intervention group than in the controlgroup (P = .04), translating to 0.10 gained QALYs. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was USD $3,830 per QALYand the likelihood of cost-effectiveness was 95%.

Conclusions: Intervention with dance twice weekly in addition to usual school health services may be consideredcost-effective compared with usual school health services alone, for adolescent girls with internalizing problems.

Background: Functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) affect children, especially girls, all over the world. The evidence for existing treatments is mixed, and effective accessible treatments are needed. Dance, a rhythmic cardio-respiratory activity, combined with yoga, which enhances relaxation and focus, may provide physiological and psychological benefits that could help to ease pain.

Objectives: The aim with this study was to evaluate the effects of a dance and yoga intervention on maximum abdominal pain in 9- to 13-year- old girls with FAPDs.

Methods: This study was a prospective randomised controlled trial with 121 participants recruited from outpatient clinics as well as the general public. The intervention group participated in dance and yoga twice weekly for 8 months; controls received standard care. Abdominal pain, as scored on the Faces Pain Scale–Revised, was recorded in a pain diary. A linear mixed model was used to estimate the outcomes and effect sizes.

Results: Dance and yoga were superior to standard healthcare alone, with a medium to high between-group effect size and significantly greater pain reduction (b = −1.29, p = 0.002) at the end of the intervention.

Conclusions: An intervention using dance and yoga is likely a feasible and beneficial complementary treatment to standard health care for 9- to 13-year-old girls with FAPDs.

Significance:  FAPDs affect children, especially girls, all over the world. The negative consequences such as absence from school, high consumption of medical care and depression pose a considerable burden on children and their families and effective treatments are needed. This is the first study examining a combined dance/yoga intervention for young girls with FAPDs and the result showed a reduction of abdominal pain. These findings contribute with new evidence in the field of managing FAPDs in a vulnerable target group.