Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms

Ridley, Matthew; Rao, Gautam; Schilbach, Frank; Patel, Vikram

doi:10.3386/w27157

Cited by 127 publications

(164 citation statements)

References 123 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

138

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In sum, we find that CTs, on average, have a positive effect on MH and SWB indicators among recipients. More precisely, we find, as do Ridley et al (2020), an average impact of about 0.10 SDs. Additionally, we observe that the effects of CTs appear to only dissipate slowly over time, if at all.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…This may be particularly true for those at low income levels (Clark, 2017;Deaton, 2008). A similar relationship is also observed in the MH literature (Karimli et al, 2019;Tampubolon & Hanandita, 2014;Schilbach et al, 2016;Ridley et al, 2020). Moreover, mental health problems may engender and perpetuate poverty (Haushofer & Fehr, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…We know of no previous systematic reviews of this subject. A meta-analysis by Ridley et al (2020), which evaluates the impact of CTs on MH, is closest to our work. 1 We build on their work in four directions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The impact of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health in low- and middle- income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

McGuire¹,

Kaiser²,

Bach-Mortensen³

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: A large body of evidence evaluates the impact of cash transfers (CTs) on physical health and economic indicators. A growing amount of research on CTs contains measures of subjective well- being (SWB) and mental health (MH) but no attempt has been made to systematically synthesize this work.Methods/design: We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs and quasi- experimental studies, including peer-reviewed publications and grey literature (e.g. reports, pre-prints, and working papers), conducted over the period 2000-2020, examining the impact of CTs on self- reported SWB and MH outcomes.Results: Two authors (JM and CK) double-screened 1,147 records of potentially relevant studies, finding 38 studies suitable for inclusion in our meta-analysis, covering 100 outcomes and a total sample of n=114,274 individuals. The average effect size (Cohen’s d) of 38 CT studies on our composite outcome of MH and SWB is 0.10 standard deviations (SDs) (95% CI: 0.8, 0.13) for an average time until follow-up of two years. However, there is a substantial amount of heterogeneity in the estimated effects (I-squared = 64% and 95% Prediction interval: 0.0021, 0.215). CT value, both in absolute terms and relative to previous income, are significant predictors of the effect size. We find only weak evidence that the impact diminishes over time. Four randomized controlled trials in our sample were designed to identify the spillover effects of CTs on the SWB and MH outcomes of non-recipients. Two found negative spillovers but the average effect is not statistically significant and is close to zero.Discussion: Cash transfers significantly increase MH and SWB in low- and middle-income countries. More research on the long run (5+ years) effects is needed, as well as further analysis of the community and household spillover effects of cash transfers on MH and SWB outcomes. We encourage the inclusion of MH and SWB metrics in impact evaluations of interventions to enable the assessment of their relative cost-effectiveness at improving lives compared to cash transfers.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The impact of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health in low- and middle- income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

McGuire¹,

Kaiser²,

Bach-Mortensen³

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…* Related work using cross-sectional data finds an association between self-reported changes in physical activity during the pandemic and measures of mental health (25). This paper also relates to the broader research on the determinants of men-* The Healthy Minds Network report (https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/ uploads/2020/09/Healthy Minds NCHA COVID Survey Report FINAL.pdf) estimated that 40% of surveyed college students were at risk for depression based on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scale (23) tal health (26)(27)(28)(29)(30) as well as work on health behavior change. Prior studies demonstrate how changing circumstances or context can quickly disrupt healthy habits (31,32).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifestyle and mental health disruptions during COVID-19

Giuntella

Hyde

Saccardo

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

447

282

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using a longitudinal dataset linking biometric and survey data from several cohorts of young adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (N=682), we document large disruptions to physical activity, sleep, time use, and mental health. At the onset of the pandemic, average steps decline from 10,000 to 4,600 steps per day, sleep increases by 25 to 30 min per night, time spent socializing declines by over half to less than 30 min, and screen time more than doubles to over 5 h per day. Over the course of the pandemic from March to July 2020 the proportion of participants at risk for clinical depression ranges from 46% to 61%, up to a 90% increase in depression rates compared to the same population just prior to the pandemic. Our analyses suggest that disruption to physical activity is a leading risk factor for depression during the pandemic. However, restoration of those habits through a short-term intervention does not meaningfully improve mental well-being.

show abstract

“…The anticipation of economic shocks may cause mental illness such as mania. People living in poverty face substantial uncertainty and income volatility and complex financial portfolios, often without access to formal insurance; this might increase the risk of developing bipolar symptoms (80,81).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mood Symptoms, Suicide, and Associated Factors Among Jimma Community. A Cross-Sectional Study

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The global burden of mental health problems is high and is predicted to rise. At present, mood symptoms are the foremost common psychological problems worldwide, yet little is known regarding their magnitude and associated factors in developing countries. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude and associated factors of anxiety, depressive, manic symptoms, and suicidal behavior among the rural Jimma community, Ethiopia.Methods: A community-based quantitative cross-sectional survey was employed on 423 households selected through systematic random sampling. An adapted version of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview tool was used for the structured face-to-face interview. The collected data were checked for completeness, coded, and inserted into Epi Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 23 for analysis. Variables with P < g0.05 and odds ratio (OR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] on multivariate logistic regression analysis were considered as factors associated with the outcome variable.Results: Overall, 185 (44.0%), 55 (13.1%), 44 (10.5%), and 23 (5.5%) of the respondents had anxiety, depressive, manic symptom, and suicide behavior, respectively. The odds of having anxiety symptoms were nearly 5 times higher among those who had perceived discrimination and racism experience compared to their counterpart [adjusted OR (AOR), 5.02; 95% CI, 1.90–13.26]. Likewise, recently bereaved participants had 4-fold higher odds of reporting depressive symptoms (AOR, 3.9; 95% CI, 1.4–10.4) than the non-bereaved ones. Furthermore, respondents who had depressive symptoms were almost four and a half times more likely to have manic symptoms compared to those who did not (AOR, 4.3; 95% CI, 1.71–11.02).Conclusion: Anxiety, depressive, manic symptoms, and suicidal behavior were prevalent in the community and positively associated with multiple psychosocial factors. Implementing accessible and affordable community-based mental health services is recommended to mitigate the problems.

show abstract

Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms

Cited by 127 publications

References 123 publications

The impact of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health in low- and middle- income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The impact of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health in low- and middle- income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Lifestyle and mental health disruptions during COVID-19

Mood Symptoms, Suicide, and Associated Factors Among Jimma Community. A Cross-Sectional Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About