Exploring heterogeneity and correlates of depressive symptoms in the Women and Their Children's Health (WaTCH) Study

Abstract

Introduction Oil spill exposures are associated with increased levels of depression, which is often measured using continuous scores or dichotomous cut points on screening tools in population-based studies. Latent profile analysis can overcome analytic limitations such as 1) masking of heterogeneity in outcomes among people within dichotomous categories and 2) loss of information about symptom patterns among those with the same continuous score. This study examined variation in depressive symptoms and assessed the associations between depressive symptomatology and oil spill exposure, socioeconomic risk factors, and social capital. Methods Between 2012 and 2014, we interviewed 2852 women in southeastern Louisiana. We performed latent profile analysis then tested the adjusted associations between sociodemographic characteristics, oil spill exposure and latent class membership. Results Results indicated a three-class solution in which classes varied by symptom severity as the best fit. The strongest associations were among women with the most severe depressive symptoms, who were less educated, were more economically vulnerable, and had the least social support compared to women with no depressive symptoms. Limitations This study is limited by its cross-sectional design and the self-reported nature of exposures and depressive symptoms, but results are consistent with prior literature. Conclusions Our results support the conventional use of screening tools to estimate depressive symptomatology. Nevertheless, the identification of subgroups within study participants highlights an important finding: the subgroups were comprised of characteristically different women with varying levels of depressive symptoms, a discovery that would have been overlooked if the CES-D was used conventionally.

Untangling the disaster-depression knot: The role of social ties after Deepwater Horizon

“…14 Similarly, lower levels of social support were found to be associated with the most severe depressive symptoms 2-4 years after the DHOS. 15 …”

Individual-level exposure to disaster, neighborhood environmental characteristics, and their independent and combined associations with depressive symptoms in women

“…Previous research demonstrates that oil spill exposures are associated with a range of poor mental health outcomes, including increased levels of depression [23–28]. However, to date, studies of post-oil spill depression have not examined mental health consequences of the interaction between the neighborhood environment and experiencing an oil spill.…”

PTSD symptom profiles among Louisiana women affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: A latent profile analysis

“…Another study estimated that 12% of residents of Southeastern Louisiana met criteria for PTSD following the oil spill (Osofsky et al, 2011). Oil spill-related income loss and economic impact is a risk factor for adverse mental health outcomes (S. Gaston et al, 2016;S. A. Gaston et al, 2017;Grattan et al, 2011;Rung et al, 2016;Shenesey & Langhinrichsen-Rohling, 2015), while self-perceived resilience is protective against depressive and PTSD symptoms one year following the oil spill (Shenesey & Langhinrichsen-Rohling, 2015).…”