Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Objectives
The rapid growth of urban areas in China in the past few decades has introduced profound changes in family structure and income distribution that could plausibly affect mental health. Although multilevel studies of the influence of area-level socioeconomic factors on mental health have become more common in other parts of the world, a study of this sort has not been carried out in Chinese cities. Our objectives were to examine the associations of two key neighbourhood-level variables-median income and percentage of married individuals living in the neighbourhood-with mental disorders net of individual-level income and marital status in three Chinese cities.Setting
Household interviews in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, PRC, as part of the cross-sectional World Mental Health Surveys.Participants
4072 men and women aged 18-88 years.Primary and secondary outcome measures
Lifetime and past-year internalising and externalising mental disorders.Results
Each one-point increase in neighbourhood-level percentage of married residents was associated with a 1% lower odds of lifetime (p=0.024) and 2% lower odds of past-year (p=0.008) individual-level externalising disorder, net of individual-level marital status. When split into tertiles, individuals living in neighbourhoods in the top tertile of percentage of married residents had 54% lower odds of a past-year externalising disorder (OR=0.46, 95%?CI: 0.24 to 0.87) compared with those in the bottom tertile. Neighbourhood-level marital status was not statistically associated with either lifetime or past-year internalising disorders. Neighbourhood-level income was not statistically associated with odds of either internalising or externalising disorders.Conclusions
The proportion of married residents in respondents' neighbourhoods was significantly inversely associated with having externalising mental disorders in this sample of Chinese cities. Possible mechanisms for this finding are discussed and related to social causation, social selection and social control theories. Future work should examine these relationships longitudinally.
SUBMITTER: Chiavegatto Filho ADP
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5652513 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Chiavegatto Filho Alexandre Dias Porto ADP Sampson Laura L Martins Silvia S SS Yu Shui S Huang Yueqin Y He Yanling Y Lee Sing S Hu Chiyi C Zaslavsky Alan A Kessler Ronald C RC Galea Sandro S
BMJ open 20171011 10
<h4>Objectives</h4>The rapid growth of urban areas in China in the past few decades has introduced profound changes in family structure and income distribution that could plausibly affect mental health. Although multilevel studies of the influence of area-level socioeconomic factors on mental health have become more common in other parts of the world, a study of this sort has not been carried out in Chinese cities. Our objectives were to examine the associations of two key neighbourhood-level va ...[more]