Latinos and Depression: Findings from a Community-Based Mental Health Promotion Effort

In-depth research among Latino communities is essential. Any sustainable solution to Latino mental health disparities must consider the interrelated factors of culture, policy, and health care access. To address this, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), supported by the Lilly Foundation, implemented a project conducted by promotores de salud (lay health educators) – De Blanco y Negro a Colores: Entendiendo la Depresión – to increase awareness, knowledge, and actions related to depression among Latinos in three communities. NCLR-trained promotores reached 454 Latinos through charlas (community health education sessions). Ninety-eight percent of participants completed the program evaluation with more than 300 also completing the accompanying PHQ-9 depression-related symptoms screening questionnaire.

Evaluation results found that in spite of overall low levels of depression-related symptoms, participants who primarily spoke Spanish and those who were foreign-born had significantly higher PHQ-9 scores than primarily English-speaking and U.S.-born Latinos. Furthermore, foreign-born participants who had resided in the U.S. ten years or less had higher PHQ-9 scores than those who had resided in the country for more than ten years. Although a small sample, these results represent a departure from previous research which had found that foreign-born Latinos are less likely to be depressed when compared to U.S.-born Hispanics. Thus, attention should be particularly paid to the mental health of immigrants with limited English skills and tenure in the U.S.

In its second year, the project will expand to assess the influence of environmental factors (i.e., economy and anti-immigrant sentiment) on foreign- and native-born Hispanics' mental health status.