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Cited by 101Health disparities and outcomesMental Health Treatment and AccessPublic Health and Social Inequalities

Social epidemiology and global mental health: expanding the evidence from high-income to low- and middle-income countries

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Maselko, Joanna·2017·Current Epidemiology Reports
DOI 10.1007/s40471-017-0107-yPMC PMC5488107
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Abstract

PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: The vast majority of research on the social determinants of mental health has been generated from high-income country (HIC) populations, even as the greatest health disparities, and greatest disease burden, is observed in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The goal of this review is to examine the evidence base on how key social epidemiology constructs relate to mental health in LMIC contexts. A special focus is on points of departure from the HIC knowledge base, gaps in overall understanding, and opportunities for social epidemiology to make a significant contribution. RECENT FINDINGS: A growing body of literature suggests that there is significant heterogeneity, both in the direction and magnitude, of association between factors such as socioeconomic status, income inequality, gender, and social networks/supports and mental health in LMIC. For example, higher levels of education and being married can be risk factors for worse mental health among women in certain contexts. However, many studies have methodological limitations that make causal inference difficult. Poverty alleviation interventions offer a unique opportunity to examine the impact of improving economic resources and mental health. SUMMARY: Much remains unknown about the impact of key social factors on mental health in LMIC. Findings from HICs may not apply to LMIC populations, since the meaning and distribution of a given social variable may differ significantly from what is commonly observed in HICs. These points of departure point to opportunities for social epidemiology to make a contribution to the field of global mental health.

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  • Given the association between poverty and poor mental health, the use of fiscal measures such as cash transfer programmes and other poverty reduction measures to promote and improve the mental health of young people have come to prominence.

    “Given the association between poverty and poor mental health, the use of fiscal measures such as cash transfer programmes and other poverty reduction measures to promote and improve the mental health of young people have come to prominence. 437”

    From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [437]

    The ‘Socioeconomic Status and Poverty’ section links poverty and mental health and discusses cash transfers and other poverty-alleviation measures as ways to assess or improve mental health. Its cash-transfer example reports lower depressive symptoms among women, not young people; it also describes mixed mental-health results for other economic interventions. The source therefore supports the general rationale, but not the claim’s specific focus on young people. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Maselko, J.
Affiliations
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
Corresponding author
Maselko, Joanna
ORCID
Maselko, Joanna
Venue
Current Epidemiology Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2017-04-18
Volume
4
Issue
2
Pages
166-173
ISSN
2196-2995 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1007/s40471-017-0107-y
PMC
PMC5488107
OpenAlex
W2607214783
Cited by
101
References
7
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1
FWCI
0.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Current Epidemiology Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD050924)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Social Sciences › Health › Public Health and Social Inequalities
Keywords
social determinants of mental health, global mental health, low- and middle-income countries, socioeconomic status, income inequality, gender and mental health, health disparities, cross-country generalizability

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