Mental health and life-course shocks in a low-income country: Evidence from Malawi.
SSM Popul Health
; 19: 101098, 2022 Sep.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35711726
ABSTRACT
Economic insecurity has been widely hypothesized to be an important determinant of mental health, but this relationship has not been well-documented in low-income countries. Using data from the Mature Adults Cohort of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH-MAC), we investigate the association of negative economic shocks with mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety among adults aged 45+ years living in a low-income country. Using fixed effects estimates that control for time-invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity, we find that increased economic instability caused by events such as death of a family member, yield loss, or income loss is positively associated with worse mental health outcomes as measured by the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 instruments. Our results suggest that costly economic events are a key component to worsening mental health in settings characterized by pervasive poverty and underscore the importance of mental health as a public health and development target.
Anxiety; Depression; Economic shocks; GAD-7, General Anxiety Disorder-7; LIC, Low-income country; LMICs, Low- and middle income countries; MLSFH, Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health; MLSFH-MAC, Mature Adults Cohort of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health; Malawi; Mental health; PHQ-9, Patient Health Questionnaire-9; Poverty; SSA, Sub-Saharan Africa; Sub- saharan Africa; WHO, World Health Organization
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Language:
En
Journal:
SSM Popul Health
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: