Cumulative Socio-Economic Disadvantage and Depressive Symptoms among Older Adults in Mexico

Jacqueline Torres, University of California, Los Angeles
Rebeca Wong, University of Texas Medical Branch

Understanding the life-course socio-economic origins of later-life depressive symptoms in the developing country context may be particularly important given the growing burden of depression worldwide, and the contribution of depressive symptoms to chronic health, physical and cognitive function in later life. We use the baseline 2001 Mexican Health and Aging Study of Mexican adults > 50 years (n=8697) to test the relationship between cumulative socio-economic disadvantage across the life-course and depressive symptoms at baseline. We regressed a measure of past-week depressive symptoms (CES-D score, range 0-9 points) on a composite indicator of socio-economic status at three points across the life-course (childhood, young adulthood and adulthood). We find that those who had consistently low socio-economic status at all three points were associated with a 1-point increase in CES-D score (p<0.001) compared with those with consistently high socio-economic status, controlling for demographic characteristics, child and adult health measures and migration history.