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Neighborhood determinants of mood and anxiety disorders among men who have sex with men in New York City

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Abstract

Purpose

We examined the relationship between economic, physical, and social characteristics of neighborhoods, where men who have sex with men (MSM) lived and socialized, and symptom scores of depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

Methods

Participants came from a cross-sectional study of a population-based sample of New York City MSM recruited in 2010–2012 (n = 1126). Archival and survey-based data were obtained on neighborhoods, where the men lived and where they socialized most often.

Results

MSM who socialized in neighborhoods with more economic deprivation and greater general neighborhood attachment experienced higher GAD symptoms. The relationship between general attachment to neighborhoods where MSM socialized and mental health depended on the level of gay community attachment: in neighborhoods characterized by greater gay community attachment, general neighborhood attachment was negatively associated with GAD symptoms, while in low gay community attachment neighborhoods, general neighborhood attachment had a positive association with GAD symptoms.

Conclusions

This study illustrates the downsides of having deep ties to social neighborhoods when they occur in the absence of broader access to ties with the community of one’s sexual identity. Interventions that help MSM cross the spatial boundaries of their social neighborhoods and promote integration of MSM into the broader gay community may contribute to the reduction of elevated rates of depression and anxiety in this population.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institute of Child and Human Development (R01HD059729-01) to Beryl Koblin. Danielle C. Ompad was also supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (P30DA011041). The funders had no role in the study design, collection of data, interpretation, or in writing of the paper. The authors thank the following individuals who were involved in early iterations of this study: Sandro Galea, David Vlahov, John Beard, Mary Latka, and John Chin. We also thank the outstanding study staff of Project Achieve, who made this work possible. Finally, we thank the study participants who generously gave their time and described their experiences for the research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California at Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Magdalena Cerdá

  2. New York Blood Center, Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Vijay Nandi, Victoria Frye & Emily Greene

  3. Department of Community Health and Social Medicine, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education/CUNY School of Medicine, City College of New York, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Victoria Frye

  4. Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA

    James E. Egan

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Andrew Rundle, James W. Quinn, Daniel Sheehan & Emily Greene

  6. Department of Statistics and Biostatistics and Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Donald R. Hoover

  7. Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies, New York University College of Global Public Health, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Danielle C. Ompad

  8. Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Danielle C. Ompad

  9. Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention, Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York Blood Center, New York, NY, USA

    Hong Van Tieu & Beryl Koblin

  10. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Hong Van Tieu

Authors
  1. Magdalena Cerdá
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  2. Vijay Nandi
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  3. Victoria Frye
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  4. James E. Egan
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  5. Andrew Rundle
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  6. James W. Quinn
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  7. Daniel Sheehan
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  8. Donald R. Hoover
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  9. Danielle C. Ompad
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  10. Hong Van Tieu
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  11. Emily Greene
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  12. Beryl Koblin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Magdalena Cerdá.

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Ethical standards

The New York Blood Center Institutional Review Board first approved this study and provided on-going oversight. Subsequently, institutional review boards at co-investigator institutions also reviewed the study. All participants provided informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Cerdá, M., Nandi, V., Frye, V. et al. Neighborhood determinants of mood and anxiety disorders among men who have sex with men in New York City. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 52, 749–760 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1379-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1379-8

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