ArticleBMC public health2007
Measuring the neighbourhood using UK benefits data: a multilevel analysis of mental health status.
Article in BMC public health, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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16 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Realist theory construction for a mixed method multilevel study of neighbourhood context and postnatal depression.SpringerPlus · 2016Article
- Explaining ecological clusters of maternal depression in South Western Sydney.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2014Article
- Bayesian hierarchical spatial regression of maternal depressive symptoms in South Western Sydney, Australia.SpringerPlus · 2014Article
- Associations between neighborhood characteristics and self-rated health: a cross-sectional investigation in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) cohort.Health & place · 2013Article
- Gender differences in health-related quality of life of Australian chronically-ill adults: patient and physician characteristics do matter.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2013Article
- Changing patterns in the association between regional socio-economic context and dental caries experience according to gender and age: a multilevel study in Korean adults.International journal of health geographics · 2012Article
- Neighborhood characteristics and mental health: the relevance for mothers of infants in deprived English neighborhoods.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2011Article
- Hard times or good times? Inequalities in the health effects of economic change.International journal of public health · 2011Article
- Quality of life of Australian chronically-ill adults: patient and practice characteristics matter.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2009Article
- Fast food purchasing and access to fast food restaurants: a multilevel analysis of VicLANES.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2009Article
- Challenges for multilevel health disparities research in a transdisciplinary environment.American journal of preventive medicine · 2008Article
- A multilevel analysis of effect of neighbourhood and individual wealth status on sexual behaviour among women: evidence from Nigeria 2003 Demographic and Health Survey.BMC international health and human rights · 2008Article
- Perceptions of the neighbourhood environment and self rated health: a multilevel analysis of the Caerphilly Health and Social Needs Study.BMC public health · 2007Article
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Abstract
backgroundEvidence from multilevel research investigating whether the places where people live influence their mental health remains inconclusive. The objectives of this study are to derive small area-level, or contextual, measures of the local social environment using benefits data from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and to investigate whether (1) the mental health status of individuals is associated with contextual measures of low income, economic inactivity, and disability, after adjusting for personal risk factors for poor mental health, (2) the associations between mental health and context vary significantly between different population sub-groups, and (3) to compare the effect of the contextual benefits measures with the Townsend area deprivation score.
methodsData from the Welsh Health Survey 1998 were analysed in Normal response multilevel models of 24,975 individuals aged 17 to 74 years living within 833 wards and 22 unitary authorities in Wales. The mental health outcome measure was the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) of the Short Form 36 health status questionnaire. The benefits data available were the means tested Income Support and Income-based Job Seekers Allowance, and the non-means tested Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance. Indirectly age-standardised census ward ratios were calculated to model as the contextual measures.
resultsEach contextual variable was significantly associated with individual mental health after adjusting for individual risk factors, so that living in a ward with high levels of claimants was associated with worse mental health. The non-means tested benefits that were proxy measures of economic inactivity from permanent sickness or disability showed stronger associations with individual mental health than the means tested benefits and the Townsend score. All contextual effects were significantly stronger in people who were economically inactive and unavailable for work.
conclusionThis study provides evidence for substantive contextual effects on mental health, and in particular the importance of small-area levels of economic inactivity and disability. DWP benefits data offer a more specific measure of local neighbourhood than generic deprivation indices and offer a starting point to hypothesise possible causal pathways to individual mental health status.
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