Abstract
Internationally and in the United States, health care has been increasingly perceived and codified as a human right, and the violation of this right through being uninsured may contribute to the development of depression. Studies in several countries with markedly different healthcare structures than the United States have linked health insurance and depression both causally and associatively. However, it is unclear how this association may manifest in the United States given the unique healthcare system. Therefore, this study examined the association between being uninsured and clinical depression in the United States. Using a cross-sectional sample of 17,284 participants (57.9% female) from the CDC’s 2015 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System survey, we conducted a weighted multiple logistic regression analysis examining the association between health insurance and clinical depression. Several demographics and risk factors were controlled for. Being uninsured was associated with higher odds of having depression (aOR= 1.71), which was similar to common risk factors, such as being obese (1.43) and being an occasional smoker (1.91). Being uninsured may be a risk factor for depression. This association has implications for health insurance policy and clinical mental health practice.
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Data Availability
This study was conducted using publicly available data from the CDC and can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/annual_data/annual_2015.html
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Hughes, P.M., Hughes, M.S. Being uninsured is associated with clinical depression. Curr Psychol 42, 12701–12710 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02602-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02602-w