Journal
JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH
Volume 57, Issue 7, Pages 501-505Publisher
BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1136/jech.57.7.501
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Study objective: To assess which indicators of socioeconomic status are associated with an increased prevalence of common mental disorders. Design: Cross sectional household survey. Setting: Santiago, Chile. Participants: Random sample of adults aged 16 - 65 residing in private households. Main results: Less education ( odds ratio 2.44, 95% confidence intervals 1.50 to 3.97), a recent income decrease ( odds ratio 2.14, 1.70 to 2.70), and poor housing ( odds ratio 1.53, 1.05 to 2.23), were the only socioeconomic status variables that remained significantly associated with an increased prevalence of common mental disorders after adjustments. The prevalence of common mental disorders was also higher among people with manual unskilled occupations, overcrowded housing, and lower per capita income but these associations disappeared after adjustment for other explanatory and confounding variables. Conclusions: There is a strong, inverse, and independent association between education and common mental disorders. However, income was not associated with the prevalence of common mental disorders, after adjusting for other socioeconomic variables. Similar results have been found in other Latin American studies but British studies tend to find the opposite, that income but not education is associated with common mental disorders. Understanding the impact of socioeconomic factors on mental health requires research in poor as well as rich countries.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available