In this issue of JAMA Psychiatry, Suokas et al¹ reinforce 2 observations emerging from the rich literature on the epidemiology of mental health problems. First, Scandinavian countries with established nationwide registries that permit the linking of diverse databases offer unparalleled opportunities to investigate the temporal associations between risk factors and mental health problems at the level of an individual’s life course and at the level of populations over time. Second, poverty, in this case defined by personal income, is a major determinant for poor mental health, in this case represented by the outcome of first psychiatric admission. In summary, this study shows that (1) the poorer you are in Finland, the higher the likelihood of experiencing a first psychiatric admission; (2) this risk gradient is seen across income strata; and (3) despite overall reductions in admission rates in adults during the 19 years of observation, which is probably a reflection of the changing orientation of psychiatric care, inequalities have persisted and even grown larger across the study period.

在本期《JAMA精神病学》中，Suokas等人¹加强了从关于精神卫生问题流行病学的丰富文献中得出的2个观察结果。首先，斯堪的纳维亚国家建立了全国性的注册机构，可以链接各种数据库，这为在个体生活历程和人口层次上研究风险因素与精神健康问题之间的时间关联提供了无与伦比的机会。第二，在这种情况下，贫困是个人收入的主要决定因素，在这种情况下，贫困是精神疾病的主要决定因素，在这种情况下，首次精神病入院的结果就是贫困。总而言之，这项研究表明：（1）您在芬兰越穷，第一次接受精神科住院治疗的可能性就越高；（2）整个收入阶层都可以看到这种风险梯度；