Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation and Depression Symptoms in Adults From the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)

Abstract

Socioeconomic factors appear to impact mental health conditions such as depression, but little is known about the relative and combined role of neighborhood and personal socioeconomic deprivation among Hispanics/Latinos. This study examined cross‐sectional associations of neighborhood and personal socioeconomic deprivation with depression symptoms in a US Hispanic/Latino population from the San Diego Field Center of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (n = 3,851). Depression symptoms were assessed with the ten‐item Centers for Epidemiological Studies in Depression Scale. Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation was a composite of eleven variables (e.g., neighborhood income, education, employment, household crowding). Greater personal socioeconomic deprivation based on education, income, and employment was generally associated with higher depression symptoms, including after adjusting for neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation. Greater neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation was associated with higher depression symptoms in females but not males, but the association in females became non‐significant when adjusting for personal socioeconomic deprivation. Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation did not significantly interact with personal socioeconomic deprivation in relation to depression symptoms. The present findings support the association of personal socioeconomic status with mental health (indicated by depression symptoms) among Hispanic/Latino populations, whereas neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation did not relate to depression beyond the impact of personal indicators.

Can Homes Affect Well-Being? A Scoping Review among Housing Conditions, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Mental Health Outcomes

“…Regarding IEQ parameters, associations were found with IAQ [ 67 ], acoustic comfort [ 60 ] and overcrowding [ 3 , 59 , 60 , 63 , 65 , 77 , 78 ].…”

“…Across these studies indeed, Torresin et al [ 60 ] and Holmgren et al [ 78 ] defined overcrowding as the number of people present in the dwelling. Ruiz-Tangle and Urria [ 59 ] and Evans [ 65 ] defined it as the number of persons per bedrooms (specifically, 2,5 persons was the minimum to consider a dwelling overcrowded [ 59 ]).…”

“…On average, most of the studies [ 3 , 6 , 60 , 61 , 66 , 72 , 73 , 77 , 79 ] referred to the type of neighborhood, classifying it as urban, semi-urban/suburban, or rural. The remaining studies analyzed the quality of the neighborhood, basing it on the poverty line and rates of unemployment [ 78 ], conditions of services and infrastructures [ 67 ], as well as social (such as percentage unemployed) and physical (such as number of abandoned buildings) attributes [ 65 , 66 ].…”

“…Regarding mental health outcomes, associations were found with overall mental health [ 6 , 65 ], depression [ 6 , 77 , 78 ], anxiety [ 6 , 77 ], stress [ 6 , 65 ], and sleep problems [ 6 , 61 ]. Overall mental health was found worse when occupants were exposed to urban and traffic noise [ 6 ].…”

“…When examining depression outcomes, negative correlations were found when living in urban areas [ 77 ] compared with rural environments [ 6 ] and depending on the level of neighborhood socio-economic deprivation [ 78 ]. Two studies addressed the anxiety outcome, finding it to be worse when living in an urban area [ 77 ].…”