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# Income volatility tracks 18% higher mortality in Korean adults with depression
- URL: https://www.coios.me/income-volatility-tracks-18-higher-mortality-in-korean/
- Published: 2026-09-26T09:26:58.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-26T10:14:58.000Z
- Description: Among 735,922 South Korean adults newly diagnosed with depression followed for a mean 10.3 years, those in the highest tertile of year-to-year income volatility had an 18% higher all-cause mortality rate than the lowest tertile (HR 1.18, 1.16-1.19), with a steeper gradient in men.
- Author: Daniel Ryan
- Tags: Healthcare today, Mental health, South Korea, #peer-reviewed, #new, #item, #source-2026-09

A nationwide claims cohort followed 735,922 Korean adults diagnosed with depression from 2013 to 2023, classifying them by the intraindividual variability of their annual income change before follow-up. High versus low income volatility was associated with all-cause mortality (HR 1.18, 95% CI 1.16-1.19) and hospitalisation (IRR 1.07), with the mortality association larger in men (HR 1.26) than women (HR 1.12). Hospitalisation rate ratios were highest for blood, endocrine, respiratory and mental disorders, and marginally below unity for cancer.

*Why it is interesting: It separates an economic exposure from the diagnosis itself within a depression population, and shows the excess falls on cardiometabolic and respiratory admissions rather than cancer.*

Source

[Journal of Korean Medical Science, 21 September 2026](https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2026.41.e254?ref=coios.me)

DOI

10.3346/jkms.2026.41.e254

Type

Peer-reviewed article

Design

National health insurance claims cohort, 735,922 Korean adults newly diagnosed with depression 2008-2012, followed 2013-2023 (7.6m person-years, 90,087 deaths), overlap propensity score weighting

Verdict

New finding

Driver

[Mental health](https://www.coios.me/d-mental-health/)