ArticleBMJ open2021
Is neighbourhood income inequality associated with maternal mental health? A longitudinal analysis of pregnant and new mothers living in Calgary, Alberta.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Gender differences in the effects of economic inequality on mental conditions: a multivariate meta-analysis of Gini index and relative income position in high-income OECD countries.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Article
- Maternal Depression Mediated the Association Between Moderate Income Inequality and Physical Aggression in Five Year Old Children.Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal de l'Academie canadienne de psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent · 2025Article
- Relative Poverty and Mental Illness in Adults, Children, and Adolescents in Industrialized Countries.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2025Review
- An investigation into the relationship between community engagement and maternal mental health in Calgary, Alberta using the All Our Families cohort.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Perspectives in poverty and mental health.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
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
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesRising income inequality is a potential risk factor for poor mental health, however, little work has investigated this link among mothers. Our goal was to determine if neighbourhood-level income inequality was associated with maternal mental health over time.
designSecondary data analysis using a retrospective cohort study design. SETTING AND
participantsData from the All Our Families (AOF) ongoing cohort study in the city of Calgary (Canada) were used, with our sample including 2461 mothers. Participant data were collected at six time points from 2008 to 2014, corresponding to <25 weeks of pregnancy to 3 years post partum. AOF mothers were linked to 196 geographically defined Calgary neighbourhoods using postal code information and 2006 Canada Census data.
main outcome measuresAnxiety symptoms measured using the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory, and depressive symptoms measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale.
resultsMultilevel regression modelling was used to quantify the associations between neighbourhood-level income inequality and continuous mental health symptoms over time. For anxiety symptoms, the interaction term between neighbourhood Gini and time was significant (β=0.0017, 95% CI=0.00049 to 0.0028, p=0.005), indicating an excess rate of change over time. Specifically, a SD increase in Gini (Z-score) was associated with an average monthly rate increase in anxiety symptom scores of 1.001% per month. While depressive symptom scores followed similar longitudinal trajectories across levels of income inequality, we did not find significant evidence for an association between inequality and depressive symptoms. There was no evidence of a cross-level interaction between inequality and household income on either outcome.
conclusionIncome inequality within neighbourhoods appears to adversely impact the mental health trajectories of pregnant and new mothers. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms that explain this relationship, and how interventions to reduce income inequality could benefit mental health.
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.