Household overcrowding and psychological distress among Nunavik Inuit adolescents: a longitudinal study

Abstract

About half of Nunavik Inuit live in overcrowded households compared to very few Canadians from the general population. Living in overcrowded households is associated with greater risks of suffering from mental health problems for Canadian adolescents. The present work aims at studying prospectively the hypothesised relationship between household overcrowding at childhood and psychological distress during adolescence among Nunavik Inuit, as well as the hypothesised relationship between these phenomena when they are both measure at adolescence. Recruited as part of the Nunavik Child Development Study, 220 participants were met at 11 years old in average and then when they were 18 years old in average. Household overcrowding was assessed using the people per room ratio. Psychological distress symptoms were operationalised at adolescence using depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. The results did not show that childhood household crowding had a long-term effect on psychological distress. An absence of moderation by sex of the association was also found in the present study. Despite those results, household crowding could be a risk factor only when in interaction with other elements related with poverty or housing or could be experienced as a difficulty for adolescents on other aspects than depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts.

The effect of household crowding and composition on health in an Inuit cohort in Greenland

“…The authors conclude that the findings of the cross-sectional analysis are likely to be confounded and that the role of housing conditions on psychological distress is not as straightforward as cross-sectional studies might imply [27]. The results in the current study are in accordance with the findings by Pepin et al [9], who reported no association between childhood household overcrowding and psychological distress in adolescents. Neither Pepin et al or Pierse et al investigated the effect of household composition on mental health.…”

“…They found a strong cross-sectional association, but the longitudinal analysis showed little or no effect. A recent study among Inuit adolescents in Nunavik investigated the association between household overcrowding in childhood and psychological distress in adolescents; the results showed no longitudinal or cross-sectional effect [9]. Possible explanations for these non-conclusive results include the unknown duration of the exposure, as the durations of living in poor housing conditions have shown to affect health [10], and the absence of adjustment for household composition which has been identified as an important risk factor for health.…”

<p>Psychological Distress and Signs of Post-Traumatic Stress in Response to the COVID-19 Health Emergency in a Mexican Sample</p>

“…Above all, when accompanied by situations of poverty. 22 The perception of an elevated risk of contracting the virus was strongly associated with psychological distress. In one study, close to 54% of those evaluated perceived a moderate or high likelihood of catching the virus.…”

Association between neighbourhood socioeconomic features and residential fire incidence, related casualties and children: a cross-sectional population-based study in 4 Canadian provinces

“…31 Household overcrowding, defined as a people per room ratio above 1, is reported in only 3% of the Canadian population. 32 Given that the neighbourhood average number of persons in private households included in this study ranged between 1.8 and 4.4, it likely did not meet household overcrowding criteria, which may explain why no association between residential fire and overcrowding was observed. To our knowledge, no other ecological studies have adjusted the risk of casualties by fire incidents, which limits comparisons to our results.…”