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Black women are much less likely to report suffering from depression than white women are, a new study suggests.
Researchers culled responses from more than 1,400 black women and more than 340 white women who took part in a national survey, and found that only 10 percent of black women reported struggling with the mental health disorder at some point in their lives, compared with 21 percent of white women.
White women were also much more likely than black women to say they'd had major depression within the past 12 months (almost 9 percent versus 5.5 percent, respectively), and to have had a mood disorder at some point in their life (about 22 percent versus nearly 14 percent, respectively).
The study was published online April 8 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
Researchers culled responses from more than 1,400 black women and more than 340 white women who took part in a national survey, and found that only 10 percent of black women reported struggling with the mental health disorder at some point in their lives, compared with 21 percent of white women.
White women were also much more likely than black women to say they'd had major depression within the past 12 months (almost 9 percent versus 5.5 percent, respectively), and to have had a mood disorder at some point in their life (about 22 percent versus nearly 14 percent, respectively).
The study was published online April 8 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
Black women in rural areas were also less likely than those in cities to report having a mood disorder in their lifetime (almost 7 percent versus 14 percent, respectively), or in the past 12 months (3 percent versus more than 7 percent, respectively).
The reverse was true among white women, the study found. Those in rural areas were more likely than those in cities to report having major depression or mood disorder within the past 12 months (10 percent versus almost 4 percent, respectively).
"These findings offer an important first step toward understanding the cumulative effect of rural residence and race/ethnicity on [major depression among black women and white women], and suggest the need for further research in this area," study author Addie Weaver, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said in a journal news release.
On the face of it it appears to me at least that a tribal existence has mental health benefits.
Who knows? Interesting, though.
1400 to 340? this is a ration of 4.11 to 1
so for every for of one group they interviewed 1 of the other? And then the offer a percentage as a proof?
I am saying the JAMA should go sit in the corner until they learn the proper way to offer statistics. which is based on a sample of one to one and not an extrapolation.
I meant to say 4 not for....
Just like statistics regarding domestic violence against men. Men are less likely to report.
Child abuse, rape.....all very difficult things to report on one's self.
......what a tangled web we have woven.
People lie!
Is one group "under reporting" and the other group "over reporting"?
Who knows. But I do think that they need more people in both groups, and they need to address the accuracy of people's responses.