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300556
Neighborhood social environment stressors and mental health outcomes in the Women and Their Children's Health (WaTCH) Study in Louisiana
Monday, November 17, 2014
Samaah Sullivan, MPH
,
Epidemiology Program, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA
Edward Peters, DMD, SM, ScD
,
Epidemiology Program, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA
Edward Trapido, Sc.D, F.A.C.E.
,
Epidemiology Program, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA
Evrim Oral, MS, PhD
,
Biostatistics Program, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA
Ariane Rung, MPH, PhD
,
Epidemiology Program, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA
To determine whether depression and mental distress are higher among women who live in neighborhoods with increased social environment stressors, data were used from the WaTCH Study (n=1005), a cohort study of the long-term health effects of women exposed to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Scores ≥ 16 on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) indicated depression, and scores ≥ 13 on the Kessler 6 (K-6) indicated mental distress. Audits of participants’ neighborhoods were performed by trained home visit aides. A composite score of social environment stressors (Cronbach alpha = 0.76) was created by summing 'Yes' responses to 16 questions (e.g., window bars on homes, graffiti on buildings, and litter on streets) and then divided into quartiles. Increasing quartiles represented more adverse social environments. Logistic regression models were used to obtain odds ratios (ORs) for depression and mental distress. The mean age of women was 46 years, 50% were White, 31% had a household income less than $20,000/year, and mean oil spill exposure was 1.4 (SD 1.1). After adjusting for race/ethnicity, income, age, and oil spill exposure, women in the 4th quartile of social environment scores had significantly higher odds for depression (odds ratio (OR):1.66; 95% confidence interval (CI):1.10, 2.50) and mental distress (odds ratio (OR): 2.03; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16, 3.57) than women in the lowest quartile. These data show that women in Louisiana who lived in the most adverse neighborhoods had increased odds of depression and mental distress. Depression and mental distress may be outcomes of the psychosocial stress from living in adverse neighborhood environments that can increase the risk for poor health outcomes and other diseases. More research is needed to investigate whether depression or mental distress mediate the association between adverse neighborhood environments and other diseases.
Learning Areas:
Environmental health sciences
Epidemiology
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Explain biological mechanisms through which psychosocial stressors in the neighborhood enviornment can influence the development of disease.
Discuss how neighborhood environment stressors can influence mental health outcomes.
Define the meaning of the social environment.
Explain how depression or mental distress can mediate the association between adverse neighborhood environments and other diseases.
Keyword(s): Environmental Health, Mental Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am currently a doctoral student who has spent three years planning, collecting, and analyzing data that was obtained for this abstract. My research interests are on neighborhood influences on health. I have been the first author of a recent peer reviewed journal article on neighborhood influences on obesity. I am currently writing my dissertation proposal on a multiple pathways (psychosocial stressors, physical activity, and diet) of environmental influences on obesity.
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.
