We conducted a study of the association between gender, race /ethnicity, and social class and prevalence of depressive disorders in an urban sample (N = 2302) in Bahia, Brazil. Individual mental health status was assessed by the PSAD/QMPA scale. Family SES and head of household's schooling and occupation were taken as components for a 4-level social class scale. Race/ethnicity (white, moreno, mulatto, black) was assessed with a combination of self-designation and a system of racial classification. The overall 12-month prevalence of depressive symptoms was 12%, with a female: male ratio of 2: 1. Divorced/widowed persons showed the highest prevalence and single the lowest. There was a negative correlation with education: the ratio college educated: illiterate was 4: 1. This gradient was stronger for women than men. There was no F: M difference in depression among Whites, upper-middle classes, college-educated, or illiterate. Prevalence ratios for single, widowed and Blacks were well above the overall pattern. Regarding race/ ethnicity, higher prevalences of depression were concentrated in the Moreno and Mulatto subgroups. There was a consistent social class and gender interaction, along all race/ethnicity strata. Three-way interaction analyses found strong gender effect for poor and working-class groups, for all race/ethnicity strata but Whites. Black poor yielded the strongest gender effect of all (up to nine-fold). We conclude that even in a highly unequal context such as Bahia, Blacks, Mulattos and women were protected from depression by placement into the local dominant classes; and that the social meaning of ethnic-gender-generation diversity varies with being unemployed or underemployed, poor or miserable, urban or rural, migrant or non-migrant. (Original abstract)
CITATION STYLE
Almeida-Filho, N., Aquino, E., Araujo, M. J., James, S. A., Kawachi, I., Lessa, I., & Magalhaes, L. (2004). Social inequality and depressive disorders in Bahia, Brazil: interactions of gender, ethnicity, and social class. Social Science and Medicine, 59(7), 1339–1353. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/57051390?accountid=14511 https://ucl-new-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/openurl/UCL/UCL_VU2?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&sid=ProQ:ProQ%3Aassia&atitle=Social+inequality+and+d
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