Study population

To analyze associations between past employments, work stress at baseline and self-reported depression at follow-up, we apply several restrictions. First, we restrict the sample to respondents who are aged 45 or older and have provided full information on their employment history between age 25 and 45 (21 years; n = 102 910). Furthermore, we include only respondents who have been in paid work at least once between age 25 and 45 (n = 96 198) and have participated in at least one follow-up period (n = 62 580). In order to minimize the effect of self-reported depression on adverse employment history, work stress and later reporting of depression, we excluded all respondents who have reported at baseline investigation that they have ever been diagnosed with a major depression during lifetime (n = 51 101; see Supplementary table S1 for the item). Finally, we restrict the sample to respondents who have been in paid work at baseline investigation and who have answered the questions on their working environment. The data restrictions result in a final sample with full available data of 13 716 men and 12 767 women.