Parental Drinking, Mental Health, and Education; The Association with Offspring’s Recurring contact with Healthcare Services for Anxiety/Depression. A longitudinal Combined HUNT Survey and Health Registry Study

Abstract Background and aims: Previous research have shown that certain risk constellations of parental drinking, mental health, and years of education were prospectively associated with increased risk of offspring receiving a diagnosis and/or treatment for anxiety/depression. We know less about how such constellations may relate to other aspects of offspring’s mental health -- including recurring healthcare utilization. We examined offspring's recurring utilization of healthcare services for these disorders, as measured both by the duration of and the number of contacts with services during a 7-year study period, as a function of parental risk constellations.Design: Longitudinal cohort design combining health survey and registry data. Participants and setting: The sample included 8773 offspring from 6696 two-parent families who participated in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study in Norway. Measurements: The exposures were five constellations of parental risks, derived previously from latent profile analysis, characterized by drinking frequencies and quantities, years of education, and mental health. The outcomes were the number of years in contact with, and the total number of contacts with the healthcare services for anxiety/depression in offspring as recorded in healthcare registries during 2008-2014. Associations were examined using zero-inflated negative binomial regression models while accounting for demographics and offspring’s early mental health.Results: Parental risk constellations were not significantly associated with offspring’s’ recurring use of healthcare services for anxiety and depression during the study period, neither in terms of the number of utilization years or the number of contacts. These were primarily a function of offspring’s own characteristics, such as male gender and early mental health problems. Conclusions: Parental risk constellations were not prospectively associated with recurring utilization of healthcare services for anxiety and depression disorders among the offspring during the 7-year study period; offspring from 4 risky constellations were no more likely to use such services for longer period of time or to use them on more occasions than offspring from the low-risk constellation. Seen in conjunction with previous research, parental risk constellations may be thus more informative for understanding the etiology of offspring’s anxiety/depression, than for understanding of other aspects, including recurrence of healthcare utilization in offspring.