Epidemiol Rev 2004;26:53-62
© 2004 by the Oxford University Press
Socioeconomic Position and Major Mental Disorders
1 Department of Family and Community Health, School of Nursing, University of Maryland-Baltimore, Baltimore, MD.
2 Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Maryland-Baltimore, Baltimore, MD.
3 Department of Mental Hygiene, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
4 Population and Family Health Science, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Correspondence to Dr. Carles Muntaner, Department of Family and Community Health, University of Maryland-Baltimore, Suite 645, 655 West Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 (e-mail: cmunt001@umaryland.edu).
Received for publication September 3, 2003; accepted for publication December 10, 2003.
Abbreviation: SEP, socioeconomic position.
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INTRODUCTION |
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Psychiatric epidemiologists were among the first to use the term "social epidemiology" (1), and the role of the social environment in the etiology and course of major mental disorders continues to be investigated (2–5). A number of reviews published in the late 1990s documented the associations between socioeconomic position (SEP) and specific mental disorders (6–9); in 2003, a comprehensive meta-analysis of the research on SEP and depression (10) concluded that both prevalence and incidence studies show that persons of low SEP (i.e., low educational and low income levels) are at a higher risk of depression.
Here, we examine innovative developments in the study of the associations between SEP and major mental disorders. We use the term "socioeconomic position" for pragmatic and conceptual reasons: 1) it allows us to follow the convention in the first textbook of social epidemiology
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THE LIFE-COURSE APPROACH |
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Schizophrenia
Depression
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SOCIAL CLASS CONCEPTS AND MEASURES |
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"NEOMATERIAL" VERSUS "PSYCHOSOCIAL" MECHANISMS |
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MULTILEVEL MODELS |
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GENDER-SPECIFIC STUDIES |
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FUTURE DIRECTIONS |
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The life-course approach
Social class concepts and measures
Neomaterial versus psychosocial mechanisms
Multilevel studies
Gender-specific studies
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CONCLUSION |
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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