Primary Submission Category: Place/Communities
Gentrification and Changes in Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Study of Middle-Aged and Older US Adults
Authors: Mark Hernandez, Jana Hirsch, Yvonne Michael, Leslie McClure, Suzanne Judd, Gina Lovasi,
Presenting Author: Mark Hernandez*
Few studies have examined the relationship between gentrification and poor mental health longitudinally. We analyzed data from 14,168 US adults aged 45+ years at baseline in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study to estimate the association between gentrification and changes in depressive symptoms. We collected repeated measures of the 4-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-4) for each participant from 2003 to 2019 (mean follow-up: 10.6 years) and defined elevated depressive symptoms as a CESD-4 score ≥ 4. Gentrification status of participants’ residential census tract at baseline was computed from socioeconomic and housing cost changes from 2000 to 2010 relative to other tracts within metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) and categorized as not gentrified, moderately gentrified, intensely gentrified, or ineligible to gentrify (i.e., areas already wealthy at baseline). We estimated adjusted odds ratio (aOR) associations using multi-level models clustered by participants, nested within MSA. In the full sample, 9.3% of participants reported elevated depressive symptoms at baseline. Among older participants aged 65+ years at baseline, the odds of elevated depressive symptoms increased for every additional decade since baseline in the reference group (not gentrified; aOR = 1.45, 95% CI: 0.90, 2.31). The interaction between gentrification and time since baseline suggested an association between higher gentrification intensity and faster increases in odds of elevated depressive symptoms compared to the reference group (moderate: aOR = 1.15, 95% CI: 0.81, 1.65; intense: aOR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.03; ineligible: aOR = 1.25, 95% CI: 0.84, 1.85). We found no significant associations among participants aged 45-64 years at baseline. Our findings suggest that living in a neighborhood that experiences intense gentrification may exacerbate the progression of late-life depressive symptoms among older US adults.