Profiles of Depression Help Seeking among African Americans: A Latent Class Approach

Black Americans have poorer depression prognosis than other groups and help seeking patterns impact depression outcomes.

Method: A latent class analysis of data from the National Survey of American Life was used to identify profiles of depression help seeking among a national sample of Black Americans (n=564).

Findings: The analysis identified the following "4 class" solution: Class 1)Young Professional Help Seekers (45% of sample). Mostly younger (m=33, sd=1.17) African American females with very low education who sought depression help from a mental health professional; Class 2) Older Medical/Informal Help Seekers (15%). Included mostly older (m=57, sd=4.0) African American females with low education seeking help from primary care, clergy, and family and friends; Class 3) High Utilizers (9%). MClassiddle-aged (m=46, sd=2.72), all African American, and mostly female with middle education who sought help from all sources of support, and Class 4) Middle-Aged Informal Help Seekers (30%). Mostly female Carribean and African American. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that having health insurance was significantly related to the increased likelihood of being in the class of Middle-Aged Informal Help Seekers over the class of Young Professional Help Seekers (OR=1.34, 95% CI=1.07-1.66).

Conclusions: Blacks who engaged their family doctor and family and friends for help had a  mean age of 38 (sd=2.45) and were highly educated.  These results suggest distinct depression help seeking profiles among Black Americans and a preference for primary care and informal support and may suggest the need for additional mental health training for medical practitioners and clergy.