Sick and depressed? The causal impact of a diabetes diagnosis on depression.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is sparse evidence on the impact of health information on mental health as well as on the mechanisms governing this relationship. We estimate the causal impact of health information on mental health via the effect of a diabetes diagnosis on depression.

Methods

We employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) exploiting the exogenous cut-off value of a biomarker used to diagnose type-2 diabetes (glycated haemoglobin, HbA1c) and information on psycometrically validated measures of diagnosed clinical depression drawn from rich administrative longitudinal individual-level data from a large municipality in Spain. This approach allows estimating the causal impact of a type-2 diabetes diagnosis on clinica ldepression.

Results

We find that overall a ty

SUBMITTER: Gaggero A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10316538 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature