Mental health in the suburbs: an investigation of differences in the prevalence of depression across Canberra suburbs using data from the PATH Through Life Study

AIM: International research has shown that the characteristics of areas such as neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage, are associated with mental health; however, multilevel modelling approaches have shown that little variance in depression scores is explained at the area level. This study investigated the distribution of depression across suburbs in the Canberra and surrounding region of Australia, and the influence of area- and individual-level measures of socioeconomic position. SUBJECT and METHODS: Analysis of data is taken from Wave 3 of the Personality and Total Health (PATH) through Life study with 3,342 respondents aged 28–32 years or 48–52 years who were residents of Canberra and Queanbeyan. Depression was assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to evaluate variance components and compare suburb measures of socioeconomic circumstances and respondent-reported household income. RESULTS: Less than 1% of variance in the distribution of depression was explained at the area level. While area-level socioeconomic measures were associated with depression; this effect was weak and largely explained by the inclusion of individual-level income. Further analysis did demonstrate a non-linear relationship between area-level socioeconomic measures and depression, with some evidence of an association between the most disadvantaged suburbs and greater prevalence of depression over and above the effect of individual characteristics. CONCLUSION: We found little evidence of variance in depression at the area level but did find that the prevalence of depression was elevated in the most disadvantaged suburbs. Individual risk factors appear to have the strongest influence on depression.Funding for data collection was provided by Unit Grant 973302 and Program Grant 179805 from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). P. Butterworth was funded by NHMRC Fellowship No. 525410