Abstract
Background
The purpose of this study was to examine the association between three specific indicators of financial hardship (difficulty paying bills, food insecurity, reduced medication use due to cost) and depressive symptoms by race.
Methods
This was a cross sectional study using the Health and Retirement Study to analyze the data by conducting a logistic regression (N = 3014).
Results
When stratified by race, White participants who were food insecure had nearly a 3.0 higher odds of high depressive symptoms (95% CI: 1.59–5.51) and African Americans who took less medication due to cost had a 5.1 higher odds of reporting higher depressive symptoms (95% CI: 2.30–11.2) compared to those who did not report these hardships.
Conclusions
This research highlights the important role expanded socioeconomic measures such as hardship play in the lives of older adult populations. It further elucidates the differences in the specific measures of hardship that impact older adults by race.
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Change history
11 June 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-022-00995-x
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The original online version of this article was revised: the authors Marino Bruce and Gillian L Marshall are not affiliated with Johns Hopkins and the authors are presented with their correct affiliation.
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Marshall, G.L., Thorpe, R.J. & Bruce, M.A. Racial differences in Financial Hardship and depressive symptoms among older adults. Community Ment Health J 58, 1505–1511 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-022-00965-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-022-00965-3