Association between neighborhood socioeconomic status and healthcare utilization among individuals with a first diagnosis of major depressive disorder in primary care in the Stockholm region.

BACKGROUND

Population-based surveys suggest that low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with higher prevalence of depressive symptoms, while their healthcare utilization is not necessarily higher.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between neighborhood socioeconomic status (NSES) and healthcare utilization among individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD).

METHOD

This was a retrospective longitudinal study of all adults with a first MDD diagnosis within primary care during 2010-2018. NSES was defined by the household area of residence using the Mosaic™ classification. Outcomes were AD (antidepressants) (N06A) dispensation and psychiatric outpatient visit, both of which are outlined as options in depression guidelines. Cox multivariable regression was used for the time to event analyses.

RESULTS

A total of 117,193 individuals were included, of which 87,499 (75 %) were dispensed an AD and 35,989 (31 %) had a recorded psychiatric outpatient visit. Low NSES was associated with lower rate of AD dispensation in the first-year post-diagnosis (HR: 0.95, 95 % CI: 0.93-0.96, p < 0.001) and higher rate of psychiatric visit (HR: 1.10, 95 % CI: 1.07-1.12, p < 0.001) compared with high NSES.

LIMITATIONS

Data sources have high coverage. A minority of psychiatric care provided by non-publicly financed providers was not included. It was not possible to adjust for depression severity.

CONCLUSION

Socioeconomic status as measured by the neighborhood of residency was associated with AD dispensation and psychiatric outpatient visit in MDD, also in a healthcare system with virtually free access. This is of relevance for clinical practice, considering the focus on equity of care and the increase in depression prevalence worldwide.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Anna Gannedahl reports a relationship with Janssen Cilag AB that includes: employment. Amy Leval reports a relationship with Janssen Cilag AB that includes: employment and equity or stocks. Carl Bjorkholm reports a relationship with Janssen Cilag AB that includes: employment. Johan Lundberg reports a relationship with Janssen Cilag AB that includes: speaking and lecture fees. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.