You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 75, Issue 6
  • Low assets and financial stressors associated with higher depression during COVID-19 in a nationally representative sample of US adults

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Original research
Low assets and financial stressors associated with higher depression during COVID-19 in a nationally representative sample of US adults
  1. Catherine K Ettman1,2,
  2. Salma M Abdalla3,
  3. Gregory H Cohen3,4,
  4. Laura Sampson3,
  5. Patrick M Vivier2,5,
  6. Sandro Galea1,3
  1. 1 Office of the Dean, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  2. 2 Health Services, Policy, and Practice, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
  3. 3 Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  4. 4 Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA
  5. 5 Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
  1. Correspondence to Catherine K Ettman, Office of the Dean, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; cettman{at}bu.edu

Abstract

Background COVID-19 and related containment policies have caused or heightened financial stressors for many in the USA. We assessed the relation between assets, financial stressors and probable depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods Between 31 March 2020 and 13 April 2020, we surveyed a probability-based, nationally representative sample of US adults ages 18 and older using the COVID-19 and Life stressors Impact on Mental Health and Well-being survey (n=1441). We calculated the prevalence of probable depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (cut-off ≥10) and exposure to financial stressors by financial, physical and social assets categories (household income, household savings, home ownership, educational attainment and marital status). We estimated adjusted ORs and predicted probabilities of probable depression across assets categories and COVID-19 financial stressor exposure groups.

Results We found that (1) 40% of US adults experienced COVID-19-related financial stressors during this time period; (2) low assets (OR: 3.0, 95% CI 2.1 to 4.2) and COVID-19 financial stressor exposure (OR: 2.8, 95% CI 2.1 to 3.9) were each associated with higher odds of probable depression; and (3) among persons with low assets and high COVID-19 financial stressors, 42.7% had probable depression; and among persons with high assets and low COVID-19 financial stressors, 11.1% had probable depression. Persons with high assets and high COVID-19 financial stressors had a similar prevalence of probable depression (33.5%) as persons with low assets and low COVID-19 financial stressors (33.5%). The more assets a person had, the lower the level of probable depression.

Conclusion Populations with low assets are bearing a greater burden of mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • depression
  • socio-economic
  • stress
  • inequalities
  • social inequalities

Data availability statement

Data from the COVID-19 and Life stressors Impact on Mental Health and Well-being (CLIMB) study available upon reasonable request.

This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-215213

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Data availability statement

    Data from the COVID-19 and Life stressors Impact on Mental Health and Well-being (CLIMB) study available upon reasonable request.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors CKE designed the study, analysed data and wrote the paper. SMA contributed edits to the paper. GHC and LS contributed to the analysis and edits to the paper. PMV and SG provided supervision to the study, assisted with study design, contributed to the analysis and edited the paper.

    • Funding This study was funded in part through support from the Rockefeller Foundation-Boston University 3-D Commission. CKE worked on this project while funded by the National Institutes of Health (T32 AG 23 482-15).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.