engleski

What connects poverty and psychological distress? Data triangulation analysis on county level in Croatia

Background Poverty is a social construction described with many dimensions(socioeconomic determinants) ; lack of education, inadequate housing, social exclusion, unemployment, environmental degradation, and low income are just some of those. Sex, age, employment status and education correlate with occurrence of psychological distress (PD) in a same way as with poverty. There is a large body of evidence from studies in industrialized countries demonstrating association between poverty and mental health status, also replicated in low and middle income countries with the most consistent association being with low levels of education. Aim of this study was to determine whether there is significant correlation in Croatian population at the county level between poverty and bad mental health status described as psychological distress. Methods Data used in this analysis comes from Croatia Adult Health Survey 2003, pooled 2002, 2003 and 2004 Household Budget Survey and county statistics from Central Bureau of Statistics for year 2003. As the mental health outcome measure we used the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) subscale of the SF-36 health status questionnaire, with the score lower than 52 determined as psychological distress. Socioeconomic determinants used in this study are unemployment rate, divorce rate, average years of education, population older than 65 years, criminality rate, alcohol consumption, and smoking. Data were analyzed for each socioeconomic determinant fit into linear model with PD as analysis variable. Also, linear regression model is done with PD as dependant variable and all socioeconomic determinants as explanatory variable, controlled for poverty rate. Results The only socioeconomic determinant showing statistical significance for both poverty and PD is education level (PD=59.635094 - 3.5462554 average_years_of_education, p=0.0054). Linear regression model was not significant (p=0.2063). Conclusion Literature shows that determinants constructs for PD and poverty look much alike suggesting that there should be some correlation between them. Our study presented major differences between poverty and psychological distress constructs with the education as the only socioeconomic determinant significant for both.

poverty; mental health

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