Associations between socioeconomic factors and mental symptoms highlight whole-body correlates and pathways

Socioeconomic status (SES) correlates with both mental symptoms and systemic health traits, suggesting systemic health conditions as potential complementary pathways for SES-mental health associations alongside neural mechanisms. Here, we distinguished independent associations of areal and personal SES with 95 whole-body health traits, including anxiety and depression, tested whether these associations differ by age and sex, and assessed the extent to which associations between areal SES and mental health are statistically attributable to personal SES and whole-body health traits in 489,543 participants from the UK Biobank. We identified 144 independent associations of areal and personal SES with whole-body health traits, including 14 with significant age differences and 65 with significant sex differences. The associations between areal SES and mental symptoms were primarily mediated by personal SES and whole-body health traits. The pathways from areal SES to depression and anxiety symptoms may inform multiple-level interventions for mental health improvement.