Impact of public housing relocations: Are changes in neighborhood conditions related to depression among relocating adults?

Background:Recent studies suggest that neighborhood quality affects residents' mental health. Using data from a cohort of African-American adults relocating from US public housing complexes, we will report results of a multilevel longitudinal analysis testing the hypothesis that depression declines among adults who experience greater post-relocation improvements in neighborhood conditions.

Methods:Baseline data were collected from 172 public housing residents before relocations occurred; three waves of post-relocation data were collected every 6 months thereafter. Individual-level characteristics were assessed via survey; depression was ascertained using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Administrative data describe the census tracts where participants lived at each wave (e.g. poverty rates, violent crime rates, alcohol outlet density). Multilevel methods will be used to test hypotheses.

Results:At baseline, the mean CES-D score was 26 (SD=9) for women and 21 (SD=8) for men; the mean score declined to 17 (SD=11) and 14 (SD=8) for women and men, respectively, by Wave 2 and remained stable thereafter. Tract conditions improved as well. For example, the mean tract-level poverty rate declined from 46% at baseline to 28% at Wave 4, and the violent crime rate dropped from 3.4 to 2.3 per 1000 residents. Multilevel analyses will test associations between tract-level changes and depression.

Discussion:Relocaters experienced considerable declines in depression and improvements in multiple tract-level characteristics. Results of multilevel models will determine whether tract-level improvements were associated with declines in depressive symptoms, and which specific tract-level changes were most important. We will discuss implications for future research, interventions, and housing policy.