RESEARCH REPORT

Neighbourhood characteristics, individual level socioeconomic factors, and depressive symptoms in young adults: the CARDIA study

Claire Henderson¹, Ana V Diez Roux², David R Jacobs, Jr³, Catarina I Kiefe⁴, Delia West⁵ and David R Williams⁶

¹ Health Services Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
² University of Michigan Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, USA
³ Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, USA and Department of Nutrition, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
⁴ Division of Preventive Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, USA
⁵ University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, USA
⁶ University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr C Henderson
Public Psychiatry Fellowship, room 317, 722 W 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA; hendersc{at}nypdrat.cpmc.columbia.edu

Study objective: To investigate the relation between neighbourhood socioeconomic and ethnic characteristics with depressive symptoms in a population based sample.

Design: Cross sectional data from the CARDIA study, including the Center for Epidemiological Studies depression scale score (CES-D). Neighbourhoods were 1990 US census blocks of 1000 people; six census variables reflecting wealth/income, education, and occupation investigated separately and as a summary score; neighbourhood racial composition (percentage white and black) and individual level income and education were also examined.

Setting: Participants recruited in 1985/86 from community lists in Birmingham, AL; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis MN; from a health plan in Oakland, CA.

Participants: 3437 adults aged 28–40 years in 1995/96: 24% white men, 27% white women, 20% black men, 29% black women.

Main results: For each race-sex group, CES-D was inversely related to neighbourhood score and individual income and education. Associations of neighbourhood score with CES-D became weak and inconsistent after adjusting for individual level factors; personal income remained strongly and inversely associated with CES-D. Age adjusted mean differences (standard errors) in CES-D between the lowest and highest income categories were 3.41 (0.62) for white men, 4.57 (0.64) for white women, 5.80 (0.87) for black men, and 5.74 (0.83) for black women. For both black and white participants, CES-D was associated negatively with percentage of white people and positively with percentage of black people in their census block, before, but not after, adjustment for individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic variables.

Conclusions: Neither neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics nor ethnic density were consistently related to depressive symptoms once individual socioeconomic characteristics were taken into account.

Abbreviations: CARDIA, coronary artery risk development in young adults study; CES-D, Center for Epidemiological Studies depression scale

Keywords: neighbourhood characteristics; ethnic density; socioeconomic status; depression

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