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Associations between Rat Infestations and Mental Health Vary by Gender, Race, and Income in Chicago

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Abstract

Rats are an understudied stressor for people in urban environments around the world but the effects may not be distributed equally among residents. In this study, we examined associations between residential rat sightings and mental health in Chicago, where rat complaints are the highest of any American city. We examined how this relationship varied by frequency of rat sightings, race, ethnicity, income, home ownership, and gender and explored potential psychosocial pathways (e.g., feelings about the home) between rat sightings and mental distress. We conducted a randomized household survey along an income gradient in 2021 and asked about depressive symptoms in the past week (i.e., Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale), frequency of rat sightings in/around the home, perceptions of rats, neighborhood conditions, and socio-demographic characteristics. We used logistic regression to assess relationships among these variables for our entire sample and for specific demographics using stratified models. Respondents (n = 589; 409 complete cases) who saw rats in/around the home daily/almost daily had 5.5 times higher odds of reporting high depressive symptoms relative to respondents who saw rats less frequently after accounting for socio-demographics and neighborhood conditions. This relationship was significant for men and respondents with lower incomes or race or ethnicity other than white. Our results show that rat infestations should be considered a threat to mental health among urban residents. Increased mental health support for residents living in rat-infested housing may improve public health in cities.

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The data associated with this analysis has been provided as a supplementary file.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the survey respondents for sharing their experiences around a stigmatized topic. We also thank research interns Paige Nussbaumer, Steph Muller, and Deirdre McGovern for assisting with surveys over the phone and ChuiYi Kwan for translating our survey into Mandarin Chinese. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1923882. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservation and Science, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL, USA

    Maureen H. Murray, Jacqueline Y. Buckley & Seth B. Magle

  2. Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Kaylee A. Byers

  3. Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, Abbotsford, BC, Canada

    Kaylee A. Byers

  4. Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Danielle German

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  1. Maureen H. Murray
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  4. Seth B. Magle
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Correspondence to Maureen H. Murray.

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Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the Lincoln Park Zoo Institutional Review Board (IRB-21–001-EX).

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Murray, M.H., Byers, K.A., Buckley, J.Y. et al. Associations between Rat Infestations and Mental Health Vary by Gender, Race, and Income in Chicago. J Urban Health 101, 318–326 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-024-00840-4

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