ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2018
Associations between neighbourhood characteristics and depression: a twin study.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The association between income inequality and adult mental health at the subnational level-a systematic review.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2022Pooled it
- Regional variation in healthcare utilization among patients with depression in Germany: a multilevel analysis with PopGrouper-based multimorbidity adjustment.Research in health services & regions · 2026Article
- Relative Poverty and Mental Illness in Adults, Children, and Adolescents in Industrialized Countries.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2025Review
- [Area-level socioeconomic deprivation, socioeconomic status, and depressive symptoms: a multilevel analysis using data from the GEDA 2019/2020 study].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025Article
- Policy solutions to eliminate racial and ethnic child health disparities in the USA.The Lancet. Child & adolescent health · 2024Review
- Lifestyle factors as mediators of area-level socioeconomic differentials in mental health and cognitive function: the Tromsø Study.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2023Article
- The role of social deprivation and depression in dementia risk: findings from the longitudinal survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2023Article
- Deriving neighborhood-level diet and physical activity measurements from anonymized mobile phone location data for enhancing obesity estimation.International journal of health geographics · 2022Article
- Urbanization level and neighborhood deprivation, not COVID-19 case numbers by residence area, are associated with severe psychological distress and new-onset suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of affective disorders · 2021Article
- Healthcare Service Use for Mood and Anxiety Disorders Following Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Cohort Study of the Role of Neighbourhood Socioenvironmental Characteristics in a Largely Rural Population.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Observational
- Neighbourhood disadvantage and depressive symptoms among adolescents followed into emerging adulthood.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2019Article
- Depression among Black Youth; Interaction of Class and Place.Brain sciences · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDepression is an important contributor to the global burden of disease. Besides several known individual-level factors that contribute to depression, there is a growing recognition that neighbourhood environment can also profoundly affect mental health. This study assessed associations between three neighbourhood constructs-socioeconomic deprivation, residential instability and income inequality-and depression among adult twin pairs. The twin design is used to examine the association between neighbourhood constructs and depression, controlling for selection factors (ie, genetic and shared environmental factors) that have confounded purported associations.
methodsWe used multilevel random-intercept Poisson regression among 3738 same-sex twin pairs from a community-based twin registry to examine the association between neighbourhood constructs and depression. The within-pair association controls for confounding by genetic and environmental factors shared between twins within a pair, and is the main parameter of interest. Models were adjusted for individual-level income, education and marital status, and further by neighbourhood-level population density.
resultsWhen twins were analysed as individuals (phenotypic model), all neighbourhood constructs were significantly associated with depression. However, only neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation showed a significant within-pair association with depression. A 10-unit within-pair difference in neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation was associated with 6% greater depressive symptoms (1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.11); the association did not substantially change in adjusted models.
conclusionThis study provides new evidence linking neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation with greater depression. Future studies should employ longitudinal designs to better test social causation versus social selection.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.