Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar-Apr:31-32:100091.
doi: 10.1016/j.pmip.2022.100091. Epub 2022 Jan 12.

The United States index of socioeconomic deprivation for individuals (USiDep)

Boadie W Dunlop  1 , Jeffrey J Rakofsky  1 , David Mischoulon  2 , Helen S Mayberg  3 , Becky Kinkead  1 , Andrew A Nierenberg  2 , Thomas R Ziegler  4 , Maurizio Fava  2 , Mark H Rapaport  1
Affiliations

The United States index of socioeconomic deprivation for individuals (USiDep)

Boadie W Dunlop et al. Pers Med Psychiatry. 2022 Mar-Apr.

Abstract

Background: Individuals experiencing socioeconomic deprivation consistently demonstrate poorer physical and mental health. Income alone is inadequate as a measure of socioeconomic status (SES); a better measure for assessing the deprivation status of individuals is needed.

Methods: The New Zealand Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation for Individuals, a validated, eight-item measure of deprivation, was modified to create the United States Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation for Individuals (USiDep). The questionnaire was administered to patients with major depressive disorder participating in two clinical trials. Spearman's correlation coefficients evaluated associations between USiDep scores with income and other measures associated with deprivation.

Results: The USiDep was completed by 118 participants, demonstrating adequate internal consistency (Crohnbach's alpha = 0.766) and strong item-total correlations. USiDep scores were moderately correlated with past-year personal income (Spearman's rho = -0.362, p < .001) and several other measures related to deprivation, including body mass index, level of education, quality of life, severity of childhood traumatic events, self-reported physical health, and negative life events. Patients scoring 5 on the USiDep (the highest possible score, indicating greater deprivation) had significantly lower rates of remission after 12 weeks of treatment than those scoring ≤ 4 (1/12, 8.3% vs 40/98, 40.8%, respectively, p = .03), whereas the lowest income group showed no significant associations with outcomes.

Conclusion: The USiDep is a valid, brief questionnaire for assessing SES that has utility for clinical research and may serve as a predictor of treatment outcomes in clinical trials. Validation of the USiDep in healthy controls and other medically and psychiatrically ill populations is warranted.

Keywords: Clinical Trial; Depression; Mental health; Nutrition; Poverty; Socioeconomic factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1a.
Fig. 1a.
Distribution of total number of “yes” answers on the USiDep.
Fig. 1b.
Fig. 1b.
Distribution of USiDep scores, derived from number of “yes” answers (see text).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy People 2030. https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/social-determinants.... Accessed Dec. 31, 2020.
    1. World Health Organization. Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. 2008, World Health Organization: Geneva.
    1. Patel V, Burns JK, Dhingra M, Tarver L, Kohrt BA, Lund C. Income inequality and depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the association and a scoping review of mechanisms. World Psychiatry 2018;17(1):76–89. 10.1002/wps.20492. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alegría M, NeMoyer A, Falgàs Bagué I, Wang Y, Alvarez K. Social determinants of mental health: where we are and where we need to go. Curr Psychiatry Rep 2018; 20:95. 10.1007/s11920-018-0969-9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Williams A Inter-generational equity: An exploration of the “fair innings” argument. Health Econ 1997;6(2):117–32. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources