The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #38789

Frederick J. Zimmerman, PhD, School of Public Health & Child Health Institute, University of Washington, Box 358853, 146 N. Canal St., Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98103, (206) 616-9392, fzimmer@u.washington.edu

Considerable evidence exists to suggest disparities in how individuals with similar symptoms of depression are treated. These disparities in treatment are correlated with the individual’s socio-economic status (SES), viz., income, access to care, education, and race/ethnicity. Such SES-related differences in treatment are particularly disturbing where they have been shown to exist for children, for whom the long-term effects of untreated depression on subsequent mental health and educational outcomes are especially damaging. However, more research is needed to determine the sources of such differences, which could include individual preferences or perceptions of stigma, individual income- or access-constraints or even disparate treatment by providers.

This research uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth’s Children and Young Adult supplement to test competing hypotheses about the reasons for disparate treatment for depression in children. The longitudinal quality of the data will be exploited in a multivariate, fixed-effects analysis to develop causal insights into the relationships between SES and treatment for depression. Specifically, the analysis will test whether parental income, education and race/ethnicity are determinative of treatment for depression conditional on symptom level and access to care. This project is currently in the planning stage, and results will be available by November, 2002.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Rattle off prevalence rates of depression among U.S. children in various income and race/ethnicity categories ;
• Summarize the literature on the quality of care for depression in children ;
• Discuss competing hypotheses for the existence of socio-economic differences in treatment rates for depression in children ;
• Present the evidence favoring certain of the above hypotheses.

Keywords: Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Social Inequalities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.