Neighborhood Disadvantage Is Associated with Depressive Symptoms but Not Depression Diagnosis in Older Adults

Disadvantaged neighborhood environments may have low access to healthcare, perpetuating health disparities. Previous research has reported on associations between neighborhood disadvantage (ND) and depressive symptomology but not depression diagnoses, which may indicate access to healthcare. This st...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-08, Vol.17 (16), p.5745
Main Authors: Bolstad, Courtney J., Moak, Reagan, Brown, Cynthia J., Kennedy, Richard E., Buys, David R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Aging
Censuses
Diagnosis
Health care
Households
Mental depression
Mental health
Neighborhoods
Older people
Population
Poverty
Socio-economic aspects
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomics
Studies
Symptomology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Disadvantaged neighborhood environments may have low access to healthcare, perpetuating health disparities. Previous research has reported on associations between neighborhood disadvantage (ND) and depressive symptomology but not depression diagnoses, which may indicate access to healthcare. This study tested how ND relates to depressive symptomology and diagnosis to assess for neighborhood disparities in mental health care cross-sectionally. Data from 998 community-dwelling, Black and White individuals aged 65+ included in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Study of Aging were analyzed. We obtained participants’ depressive symptomology from the Geriatric Depression Scale (n = 100) and a verified depression diagnosis from self-report and review of medication, physician-report, and/or hospital discharge summaries (n = 84). We assessed ND from US Census data, divided the sample into tertiles of ND and fit models with Generalized Estimating Equations covarying for various other variables (e.g., sex, race, physical performance, socioeconomic status, etc.). We found living in the high and mid-ND tertiles to be associated with depressive symptomology, yet ND had no significant relation to depression diagnosis. Therefore, older adults living in high and mid-disadvantaged neighborhoods may be more likely to experience depressive symptomology but not receive a diagnosis, indicating a possible disparity in mental health care.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph17165745