An Examination of the Correlation between Socioeconomic Status and Mental Health (original) (raw)
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The Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Depression
Numerous studies document lower levels of depression among adults with higher socioeconomic status (SES). This may be because income directly leads to depression. However, little is known about whether an intermediate variable, such as stress, leads to depression in people with a lower SES. In other words, does stress (increased potential threats to wellbeing and decreases in benefits to wellbeing) lead to increased negative emotion and decreased positive emotion? This study investigates the relationship between depression, financial stress and annual income. Data for this investigation come from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2015, a nationally representative sample of 441,456 U.S. adults interviewed by telephone. The results suggest that the three factors are closely related, but the association between SES and depression is stronger than the relationship between SES and financial stress. These results show that an integration of insights from stress paradigm and the correlational perspective can lead to a fuller understanding of socioeconomic inequality and its influence on depression. Keywords: socioeconomic status, depression, cross-sectional
2011
showed worse health conditions, like a high death rate and high disease morbidity, and this tendency has recently became severer. In Korea, the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reported that a population with a low educational status and poorer job conditions showed higher morbidity from chronic diseases. 6 In particular, a study reported that an income gap accounted for 30% of the direct factors that made a difference in heath. This tendency has been similarly shown for psychiatric disorders, and a low socioeconomic status has generally been observed to be related with high psychiatric morbidity. According to a meta-analysis conducted by Lorant et al. 8 a low socioeconomic status was found to be related with the prevalence of depression. In a study on the association between depression and socioeconomic status in Korea, Cho et al. 9 reported ObjectiveaaThe study was conducted to investigate the association between economic status and depressive symptoms by comparing the prevalence rates of depressive symptoms at community level and analyzing the possibility of depressive symptoms at individual level. MethodsaaA survey was conducted from November, 2006 to November, 2007 on 966 and 992 representative subjects recruited by stratified clustered sampling in two regions located in Seoul. We used a standardized questionnaire including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression and questions on the socioeconomic characteristics. The adjusted prevalence rates of depressive symptoms were compared at community level, and multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association between depressive symptoms and economic statuses at individual level among each region. ResultsaaThe adjusted prevalence of depressive symptoms was higher in the region with a high socioeconomic status (23.1%) than in the region with a lower economic status (16.6%)(p<0.001). However, logistic regression analysis of individual level revealed that a higher economic status was significantly associated with a lower possibility of depressive symptoms among the females in the low economic status region. This tendency was not observed among the males in both of the regions. ConclusionaaThe association between economic status and depressive symptoms was found to be different when it was approached at community level or individual level. In addition, the association of two variables was different by gender at individual level. Further studies that consider the third mediators are needed to determine the association between the two variables.
Journal of Public Health, 2021
Background Socioeconomic status, especially during childhood, is known as one of the key factors affecting health. This study’s objective was to investigate the association between childhood socioeconomic and mental health status in adulthood. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 2062 employees of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Depression, stress and anxiety were measured using the validated DASS-42 questionnaire. A self-rated question was used to assess childhood socioeconomic status. Other variables including age, sex, marital status, and also wealth index, were measured. Linear regression models were used to analyze the data. Results 24.6% of men and 33.8% of women had degrees of depression (mild, moderate, severe or very severe). 32.9% of men and 29.4% of women had mild, moderate, severe or very severe anxiety. 36.3% of men and 45.2% of women also exhibited mild, moderate, severe or very severe stress. Results showed after adjusting for the current socioec...
Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mental Health of Adult Population: Serbian National Health Survey
Balkan Medical Journal, 2016
Background: The global burden of mental disorders is rising. In Serbia, anxiety is the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years. Serbia has no mental health survey at the population level. The information on prevalence of mental disorders and related socioeconomic inequalities are valuable for mental care improvement. Aims: То explore the prevalence of mental health disorders and socioeconomic inequalities in mental health of adult Serbian population, and to explore whether age years and employment status interact with mental health in urban and rural settlements. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: This study is an additional analysis of Serbian Health Survey 2006 that was carried out with standardized household questionnaires at the representative sample of 7673 randomly selected households-15563 adults. The response rate was 93%. A multivariate logistic regression modeling highlighted the predictors of the 5 item Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5), and of chronic anxiety or depression within eight independent variables (age, gender, type of settlement, marital status and self-perceived health, education, employment status and Wealth Index). The significance level in descriptive statistics, chi square analysis and bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions was set at p<0.05. Results: Chronic anxiety or depression was seen in 4.9% of the respondents, and poor MHI-5 in 47% of respondents. Low education (Odds Ratios 1.32; 95% confidence intervals=1.16-1.51), unemployment (1.36; 1.18-1.56), single status (1.34; 1.23-1.45), and Wealth Index middle class (1.20; 1.08-1.32) or poor (1.33; 1.21-1.47) were significantly related with poor MHI-5. Unemployed persons in urban settlements had higher odds for poormMHI-5 than unemployed in rural areas (0.73; 0.59-0.89). Single (1.50; 1.26-1.78), unemployed (1.39; 1.07-1.80) and inactive respondents (1.42; 1.10-1.83) had a higher odds of chronic anxiety or depression than married individuals, or those with partner, and employed persons. Those with perceived good health status had lower odds for poor MHI-5, chronic anxiety or depression than those whose general health was average and poor. Conclusion: Almost half of the population assessed their mental health as poor and 5% had diagnosed chronic anxiety or depression. Multi-sectoral socioeconomic and female-sensitive policies should be wisely tailored to reduce mental health inequalities contributed by differences in age, education, employment, marriage and the wealth status of the adult population.
Socio-economic position and common mental disorders
British Journal of Psychiatry, 2006
BackgroundIndividuals in lower socio-economic groups have an increased prevalence of common mental disorders.AimsTo investigate the longitudinal association between socio-economic position and common mental disorders in a general population sample in the UK.MethodParticipants (n=2406) were assessed at two time points 18 months apart with the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule. The sample was stratified into two cohorts according to mental health status at baseline.ResultsNone of the socio-economic indicators studied was significantly associated with an episode of common mental disorder at follow-up after adjusting for baseline psychiatric morbidity. The analysis of separate diagnostic categories showed that subjective financial difficulties at baseline were independently associated with depression at follow-up in both cohorts.ConclusionsThese findings support the view that apart from objective measures of socio-economic position, more subjective measures might be equally important ...
2021
Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) has often been considered a major predictor of mental health-related outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and stress. However, little is known about the mediating role of subjective social status (SSS) — an individual perception of relative position in the social hierarchy—in the relationship between SES and health outcomes. This study aimed to determine the mediating role of SSS in the relationship between SES and mental health among the employees of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS).Methods:The data from the enrolment phase of a cohort study on TUMS employees (n = 4461) were used in this cross-sectional study. Household SES was the main independent variable. SES was first entered into the mediation model as a composite index (a combination of wealth index, social class, and education), and then each indicator was entered separately. Stress, anxiety, and depression scores were measured using the DASS-42 Scale as a latent outcome va...
Socioeconomic gradients and mental health: implications for public health
The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2015
Background Research on mental well-being is relatively new and studies of its determinants are rare. Aims To investigate whether the socioeconomic correlates of mental well-being mirror those for mental illness. Method Using logistic regression analyses, the independent odds ratios of high and low mental well-being, compared with middle-range mental well-being, were estimated for a number of sociodemographic variables known to be associated with mental illness from 13 983 participants in the 2010 and 2011 Health Surveys for England. Results Independent odds ratios for low mental well-being were as expected from studies of mental illness with increased odds for the unemployed (OR = 1.46, 95% CI 1.01-2.10) and those aged 35-54 years (OR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.35-1.84) and reduced odds for the married (OR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.62-0.97). A linear trend was observed with education and equivalised income. Odds ratios for high mental well-being differed from those for low mental well-being with regar...
Quality of Life Research
Purpose The aim of this study was to analyse the association between individual mental well-being and social, economic, lifestyle and health factors. Methods Cross-sectional study on a representative sample of 13,632 participants (> 15y/o) from the Catalan Health Interview Survey 2013–2016 editions. Mental well-being was assessed with the Warwick–Edinburg Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). Linear regressions were fitted to associate well-being and sociodemographic, relational, lifestyle and health variables according to minimally sufficient adjustment sets identified using directed acyclic graphs. Predictors entered the model in blocks of variable types and analysed individually. Direct and total effects were estimated. Results Health factors significantly contributed to mental well-being variance. Presence of a mental disorder and self-reported health had the largest effect size (eta2 = 13.4% and 16.3%). The higher individual impact from a variable came from social support (β = −...
Socioeconomic Status of Girls and Boys Relating to Their Psychological Health
International journal of health sciences
Socioeconomic status is an important exogenous factor impacting the child’s psychology and well-being. Participants in this study included students from grades 8, 10, 11, and 12 from Qatar. To measure emotional and behavioral problems, the students completed self-report questionnaires on socioeconomic indicators, gender, age, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed, and the model was improved by removing poorly loaded items. ANOVA was performed using an improved version of the model. The highest means were for emotional problems. The adolescents were mostly normal across all domains of the emotional and behavioral problem dimensions. In the univariate analysis, socioeconomic status was inversely related to all emotional and behavioral problem domains. The higher socioeconomic status the lower the emotional and behavioral problems. Girls had higher levels of emotional and behavioral problems, specifically related to emotional doma...
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1999
Separate analyses of United States and Finnish samples demonstrate a graded (almost linear) relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and risk of poor perceived health. In both studies, positive psychological factors (greater social support; less anger, depression, and perceived stress) and beneficial health practices (nonsmoking; drinking and exercising moderately) were associated with both higher levels of SES and better self-reported health. Psychological and health practice variables were both able to account for some of the SES and poor health gradient. However, contrary to expectations, these factors did not playa more important role in explaining decreased risk at the middle and highest levels of SES, and instead may be most important at lowest levels.