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The association of major depressive episodes with income inequality and the human development index

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  • Cifuentes, Manuel
  • Sembajwe, Grace
  • Tak, SangWoo
  • Gore, Rebecca
  • Kriebel, David
  • Punnett, Laura

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the association between country income distribution and human development with the 12-month occurrence of major depressive episodes across countries. A total of 251,158 people surveyed by the World Health Organization from 2002 to 2003 from 65 countries were included in the study. The survey contained items for identifying major depressive episodes (MDE) in the previous 12 months, attained education (used as an indicator of individual socioeconomic status) and other demographic information. Income inequality was measured with the Gini index, a national-level indicator; the United Nations human development index (HDI) measured overall country development. Country-level and multilevel linear regression models were utilized to study the associations. We found that moderately developed countries had the lowest adjusted prevalence of MDE followed by high and low developed countries. The Gini index was positively associated with major depressive episodes, but only among high HDI countries. After adjusting for age, gender, marital status, education and HDI, the multilevel prevalence ratio indicated a 4% increase in risk of MDE for a person living in a country associated with a 1% increment in income equality. This finding means, for example, that comparing two highly developed countries, one with low income inequality (Gini = 0.25) with another with high income inequality (Gini = 0.39), one would expect to see an increase in the prevalence of MDE from 4.0% to 6.2%. These findings raise important questions about the role of income inequality on social forces that can lead to depression.

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  • Cifuentes, Manuel & Sembajwe, Grace & Tak, SangWoo & Gore, Rebecca & Kriebel, David & Punnett, Laura, 2008. "The association of major depressive episodes with income inequality and the human development index," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 529-539, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:4:p:529-539
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    3. Ambugo, Eliva A., 2014. "Cross-country variation in the sociodemographic factors associated with major depressive episode in Norway, the United Kingdom, Ghana, and Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 154-160.
    4. Dilek Başar & Selcen Öztürk, 2020. "Assessing Horizontal Equity in the Utilization of Mental Healthcare Services in Turkey: A Gender Perspective," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 299-309, April.
    5. Rukhsana Kalim & Noman Arshed & Waqas Ahmad, 2021. "Aligning the Real Sector Production with Human Development: Exploring Role of Multi-sector Collaboration," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 955-976, October.
    6. Hilda Osafo Hounkpatin & Alex Wood & Gordon Brown & Graham Dunn, 2015. "Why does Income Relate to Depressive Symptoms? Testing the Income Rank Hypothesis Longitudinally," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 637-655, November.
    7. Brendon Stubbs & Kamran Siddiqi & Helen Elsey & Najma Siddiqi & Ruimin Ma & Eugenia Romano & Sameen Siddiqi & Ai Koyanagi, 2021. "Tuberculosis and Non-Communicable Disease Multimorbidity: An Analysis of the World Health Survey in 48 Low- and Middle-Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-15, March.
    8. Rosineide Fernando da Paz & Jorge Luis Bazán & Luis Aparecido Milan, 2017. "Bayesian estimation for a mixture of simplex distributions with an unknown number of components: HDI analysis in Brazil," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(9), pages 1630-1643, July.
    9. Acheampong, Alex O. & Erdiaw-Kwasie, Michael Odei & Abunyewah, Matthew, 2021. "Does energy accessibility improve human development? Evidence from energy-poor regions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    10. Lund, Crick & Breen, Alison & Flisher, Alan J. & Kakuma, Ritsuko & Corrigall, Joanne & Joska, John A. & Swartz, Leslie & Patel, Vikram, 2010. "Poverty and common mental disorders in low and middle income countries: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 517-528, August.

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