Marginalization and Age of Onset of Major Depressive Disorder: A Hierarchical Data Model

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  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Mental and Behavioral Health

Abstract

This paper examines the association between economic, gender, and race marginalization and age of onset of major depressive disorder (MDD). Data from the National Comorbidity Survey: Baseline (NCS-1), 1990-1992 and the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book (1991) were merged together on a census region variable to create the dataset. Hierarchal linear models were fitted to age of onset of major depressive disorder.

Results indicate that only one of the individual-level variables is significant: poverty. If an individual is living in poverty, the onset of major depressive disorder will occur 3.28 years earlier than for an individual not living in poverty. For the region-level variables, percentage of persons living below poverty line is significant, although it is on the interpretation line. Interestingly, the effect is a different direction from the individual-level poverty data. For every percentage point increase in poverty level in a region, the age of onset for major depressive disorder increases by 0.54 of a year.

Author

• Michaela Kathleen Curran, University of California-Riverside