141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

283030
Racial/ethnic disparities in depression symptoms during pregnancy among women: The contribution of income and neighborhood poverty

Monday, November 4, 2013 : 11:30 AM - 11:50 AM

Catherine Cubbin, PhD , School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Tara Powell, MSW, MPH PhD Candidate , School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Claire Margerison-Zilko, PhD , Center for Social Work Research; Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Kristen Marchi, MPH , Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Kathryn R. Martin, MPH, PhD , Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Division, California Department of Public Health, Sacramento, CA
Michael P. Curtis, PhD , Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Division, California Department of Public Health, Sacramento, CA
Paula Braveman, MD, MPH , Department of Community and Family Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Background. Racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms during pregnancy are substantial. Given that socioeconomic factors are related to depression and that there are tremendous differences in socioeconomic factors according to race/ethnicity, we hypothesized that racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms would be eliminated for women with similar incomes living in neighborhoods experiencing similar poverty levels. Methods. Individual-level data were drawn from the 2003-2010 California Maternal and Infant Health Assessment (MIHA), an annual statewide-representative mail and telephone survey of postpartum women who gave birth to a live infant. Neighborhood poverty trajectories were obtained from latent class growth modeling of census tract data from 1970-2009. Logistic regression models were constructed to examine racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms during pregnancy, adjusting for age, parity, marital status, and maternal education. These models were then stratified by individual-level income (poor, not poor) and neighborhood poverty (long-term high poverty, long-time moderate poverty, long-term low poverty). Results. Very few statistically significant racial/ethnic disparities were observed in the stratified models among poor women. However, among non-poor women, significant disparities were observed for women living in long-term moderate and low poverty neighborhoods (40-80% increased odds for African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, immigrant Latina, and US-born Latina women compared with White women). Conclusions. Racial/ethnic disparities were generally eliminated among poor women. However, racial/ethnic disparities remained among women living in the most socioeconomically advantaged circumstances, suggesting that women of color may not enjoy the same mental health advantages from living in higher status circumstances compared with their White counterparts.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate the interactions between income, neighborhood poverty, and race/ethnicity for depressive symptoms during pregnancy.

Keywords: Depression, Social Inequalities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am principal investigator of a grant to examine social inequalities in health among women and their young children.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.