How does per capita income growth affect bipolar and depression disorders in Africa?

This study therefore aims to examine the effect of per capita income growth on bipolar and depression disorders across African countries.The study uses data from secondary sources comprising 42 African countries over the period, 2002–2019, to achieve its objective. The prevalence of bipolar and major depressive disorders (depression) are used as the dependent variables, while per capita income growth is used as the main independent variable. The system Generalised Method of Moments regression is used as the estimation technique.In the baseline, the authors find per capita income growth to be associated with a reduction in the prevalence of bipolar (coefficient: −0.001, p < 0.01) and depression (coefficient: −0.001, p < 0.1) in the short-term. Similarly, in the long-term, per capita income growth is found to have negative association with the prevalence of bipolar (coefficient: −0.059, p < 0.01) and depression (coefficient: −0.035, p < 0.1). The results are similar after robustness checks.This study attempts at providing the first empirical evidence of the effect of per capita income growth on bipolar and depression disorders across several African countries.
Source: Journal of Public Mental Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research