Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2022
Journal / Book Title
Hispanic Health Care International
Abstract
Objectives: In the United States, Hispanics are more likely to experience financial barriers to mental health care than non-Hispanics. We used a unique survey to study the effect of these financial barriers on the severity of depressive symptoms among Hispanics who had previously been diagnosed as having depression. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the 2015 Washington Heights Community Survey, administered to 2,489 households in Manhattan, New York City. Multiple regression models and propensity score matching were used to estimate the association between financial barriers to mental health care and depressive symptoms and the likelihood of being clinically depressed. Results: Among those diagnosed with depression, those with financial barriers to mental health services or counseling had significantly higher (β = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.03, 0.70) depressive symptoms. When propensity score matching was utilized, those with financial barriers to mental health services had significantly greater depressive symptoms (β = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.37, 0.89) and were significantly more likely to be currently depressed (OR = 2.38, 95% CI = 1.46, 3.89), in comparison to those who had access. Conclusions: Making mental health care more affordable and therefore more accessible to Hispanics is one step toward mitigating the burden on mental illness and decreasing health disparities.
DOI
10.1177/15404153211057563
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Pabayo, Roman; Benny, Claire; Liu, Sze Yan; Grinshteyn, Erin; and Muennig, Peter, "Financial Barriers to Mental Healthcare Services and Depressive Symptoms among Residents of Washington Heights, New York City" (2022). Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works. 247.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/public-health-facpubs/247
Rights
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Published Citation
Pabayo, R., Benny, C., Liu, S. Y., Grinshteyn, E., & Muennig, P. (2022). Financial Barriers to Mental Healthcare Services and Depressive Symptoms among Residents of Washington Heights, New York City. Hispanic health care international : the official journal of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, 20(3), 184–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/15404153211057563