Youth psychiatric disorders and the risk of labour market marginalisation: Addressing the role of familial confounding and identifying patterns of labour force positions over time

Labour market marginalisation (LMM) remains a major public health concern, especially in young people with psychiatric disorders such as depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Yet, there is scarce knowledge on the underlying etiologic mechanisms and pathways linking early psychiatric disorders to LMM, in terms of sickness absence (SA), disability pension (DP) and long-term unemployment (LTU).

We will study the role of familial factors (ie, genetics and shared environment), comorbidities (eg, depression + ADHD) and social adversities (eg, bullying) for the risk of SA, DP and LTU in young adults with early psychiatric disorders.The project brings together an interdisciplinary team with expertise in epidemiology, insurance medicine and twin studies to conduct groundbreaking research using large-scale epidemiologic cohorts of youths, born 1982-2002, in the total Swedish population (N=1580371) and the Swedish Twin Registry (n=21494).

Youths with psychiatric disorders (eg, depression, ADHD), assessed at ages 5-19-years, will be prospectively followed into young adulthood regarding SA, DP and LTU using linkage with nationwide registries.

The unique data sources combined with use of advanced statistical methods provide a distinct opportunity to obtain precise estimates with minimal risk of potential bias.The project has clear potential to identify specific and potentially modifiable risk factors for LMM, thereby informing policymaking and healthcare planning.