Depressive Mood Among Within-Country Migrants in Periurban Shantytowns of Lima, Peru

Abstract

In low- and middle-income countries, migration to urban settings has reshaped the sprawl and socio demographic profiles of major cities. Depressive episodes make up a large portion of the burden of disease worldwide and are related to socio-demographic disruptions. As a result of terrorism, political upheaval, followed by economic development, Peru has undergone major demographic transitions over the previous three decades including large migrations within the country. We aimed to determine the prevalence of current depressive mood and its relationship with parameters of internal migration, i.e. region of origin, age at migration, and years since migration. A community-wide census was carried out between January and June 2010 within a shantytown immigrant receiving community in Lima, Peru. One male or female adult per household completed a survey. Depressive mood was assessed with a 2-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CESD) scale. Migration-related variables included place of birth, duration of residence in Lima, and age at migration. Prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated. A total of 8 551 out of 9 561 participants, response rate 89%, participated in the census. Of these, 8 091 records were analyzed: 71.8% were women (average age 39.4 [SD: 13.9 years]) and 59.3% were immigrants. The overall prevalence of individuals with current depressive mood was 17.1% (95%CI: 16.2% – 17.9%) and varied significantly by all socio-demographic and migration variables assessed. On unadjusted analyses, immigrants to Lima had higher prevalence of depressive mood if they originated in other costal or Andean areas, had lived in Lima for more than 20 years, or were less than 30 years of age when they out-migrated. When controlling for age, gender and socio-demographic variables the association was no longer significant, the only exception being a 20% lower prevalence of current depressive mood among those who out-migrated aged ≥30 years old (PR = 0.79; 95%CI 0.63 – 0.98). In conclusion, these results suggest that current depressive mood is very prevalent in this immigrant receiving community. Among all proxies for internal migration explored, in fully adjusted models, there was evidence of an association between age at migration (≥30 years old) and a lower probability of current depressive mood compared to non-migrants.

The relationship between neighborhood-level socioeconomic characteristics and individual mental disorders in five cities in Latin America: multilevel models from the World Mental Health Surveys

“…Community-level characteristics have long been known to play a role in individual-level health outcomes in higher-income countries [11] and more recently in other countries throughout the world [12]. In Latin America, although ample work has shown that individual-level socio-demographics such as migrant status, employment, education, and income are associated with mental health [13–16], very few studies have focused on the contextual, neighborhood-level determinants of mental disorders [17].…”

“…Brazil in particular has recently experienced mass internal migration from lower-income rural areas to urban areas such as São Paulo, largely for education and employment opportunities [3]. Regions with recent terrorism or political upheaval such as Peru and Colombia have also seen heavy internal migration in recent years [16, 18]. The target cities of such migration often lack the infrastructure to house, employ, or provide general resources to larger populations [3, 19].…”

Fruits and vegetables consumption and depressive symptoms: A population-based study in Peru

“…Social variables associated with increased rates of depression include extreme poverty and overcrowding, amongst others [6, 7]. In addition, other common sociodemographic indicators associated with the presence of depression include variables such as: gender, age and marital status [8].…”

Hoping for a Better Future during COVID-19: How Migration Plans Are Protective of Depressive Symptoms for Haitian Migrants Living in Chile

“…The Cronbach’s alpha (α) was calculated to assess the reliability of CESD-R-20 Scale in this study, and values ranged from 0.830–0.927 for the 20 items in the current study sample. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the 20-item-scale was 0.895, indicating a high internal consistency and that the removal of any of the items would have reduced the overall alpha marginally [ 57 , 58 , 59 ].…”