ArticleBMJ open2022
Divergent decennial trends in mental health according to age reveal poorer mental health for young people: repeated cross-sectional population-based surveys from the HUNT Study, Norway.
Article in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Secular trends in mental health problems among young people in Norway: a review and meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence and associated factors of depressive and anxiety symptoms in two birth cohorts born 20 years apart.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Associations Between Anxiety, Depression, and Disease Activity in Newly Diagnosed Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Article
- Satisfaction-Related Well-Being Among Working Young Adults and Their Parents: Core Self-Evaluations and Life Values in a Preregistered Cross-Sectional Study.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Trends in anxiety and depressive symptoms among adults in Norway based on eight population-based surveys from 1995 to 2024.Discover mental health · 2026Article
- Under-25s show the clearest post-2021 rebound in mental health: HILDA 2001-2024.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Contacted Specialised Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996-2019: A Register Study.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2026Article
- Psychosocial predictors of mental well-being in higher education students: a comprehensive approach.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Adolescent social media use and its association with mental health: a cross-sectional study in Bradford, England.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Adolescents' health and well-being into the COVID-19 pandemic: A two-wave prospective investigation- The HUNT study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Rising young worker despair in the United States.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- The Norwegian Adult Mental Health Registry for Quality Control in Specialized Mental Health Services: Protocol for a Nationwide Naturalistic Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Help-seeking for mental health: an exploratory cross-national study of Italian and South Korean university students.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Temporal Associations Between Sport Participation, Dropout from Sports, and Mental Health Indicators: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mental health and meaning in modern life among young adults in Norway.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Environmental and Socio-Demographic Influences on General Self-Efficacy in Norwegian Adolescents.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- General Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of Physical Activity's Impact on Well-Being Among Norwegian Adolescents: A Gender and Age Perspective.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The prospective association of adolescent loneliness and low resilience with anxiety and depression in young adulthood: The HUNT study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Mental Disorders and Having a First Child Among Young Adults: A Nationwide Register-Based Cohort Study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesPublic health trends are formed by political, economic, historical and cultural factors in society. The aim of this paper was to describe overall changes in mental health among adolescents and adults in a Norwegian population over the three last decades and discuss some potential explanations for these changes.
designRepeated population-based health surveys to monitor decennial changes.
settingData from three cross-sectional surveys in 1995-1997, 2006-2008 and 2017-2019 in the population-based HUNT Study in Norway were used.
participantsThe general population in a Norwegian county covering participants aged 13-79 years, ranging from 48 000 to 62 000 000 in each survey.
main outcome measuresPrevalence estimates of subjective anxiety and depression symptoms stratified by age and gender were assessed using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-5 for adolescents and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for adults.
resultsAdolescents' and young adults' mental distress increased sharply, especially between 2006-2008 and 2017-2019. However, depressive symptoms instead declined among adults aged 60 and over and anxiety symptoms remained largely unchanged in these groups.
conclusionsOur trend data from the HUNT Study in Norway indicate poorer mental health among adolescents and young adults that we suggest are related to relevant changes in young people's living conditions and behaviour, including the increased influence of screen-based media.
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