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Mental health and life-course shocks in a low-income country: Evidence from Malawi.

ABSTRACT: Economic insecurity has been widely hypothesized to be an important determinant of mental health, but this relationship has not been well-documented in low-income countries. Using data from the Mature Adults Cohort of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH-MAC), we investigate the association of negative economic shocks with mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety among adults aged 45+ years living in a low-income country. Using fixed effects estimates that control for time-invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity, we find that increased economic instability caused by events such as death of a family member, yield loss, or income loss is positively associated with worse mental health outcomes as measured by the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 instruments. Our results suggest that costly economic events are a key component to worsening mental health in settings characterized by pervasive poverty and underscore the importance of mental health as a public health and development target.

SUBMITTER: Scheve A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9194642 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mental health and life-course shocks in a low-income country: Evidence from Malawi.

Scheve Ally A Bandawe Chiwoza C Kohler Hans-Peter HP Kohler Iliana V IV

SSM - population health 20220426

Economic insecurity has been widely hypothesized to be an important determinant of mental health, but this relationship has not been well-documented in low-income countries. Using data from the Mature Adults Cohort of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH-MAC), we investigate the association of negative economic shocks with mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety among adults aged 45+ years living in a low-income country. Using fixed effects estimates that con ...[more]

PMID: 35711726

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Dataset Information

Mental health and life-course shocks in a low-income country: Evidence from Malawi.

Publications

Mental health and life-course shocks in a low-income country: Evidence from Malawi.

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