Disentangling Race and Place in Depressive Symptoms in Men
African American men report lower levels of depressive symptoms that their white peers in national data. However, the value of these studies is often undermined by data that confound race, socioeconomic status, and segregation. We sought to determine whether race differences in depressive symptoms were present after minimizing the effects of socioeconomic status and segregation within a cohort of southwest Baltimore (SWB) men using the data from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities (EHDIC), a novel study of racial disparities within communities where African American and non-Hispanic white males live together and have similar median incomes. Using the Patient Health Questionnaire, a standard instrument for assessing mental disorders, we categorized participants as experiencing depressive symptoms (including depressive syndrome and major depression) or not experiencing depressive symptoms. Logistic regression was performed to examine the association between depressive symptoms and race in EHDIC-SWB, adjusting for age, marital status, income, education, insurance, physical inactivity, current smoking or drinking status, poor/fair health, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and obesity. Of the 628 study participants, 12.6% of white men and 8.6% of African American men reported depressive symptoms. African American males had similar odds of reporting depressive symptoms (odds ratio = 0.61, 95% confidence interval = 0.34-1.11) as compared with whit...
Source: Family and Community Health - Category: Primary Care Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
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