A brief report on health disparities between people with depression and people without depression in the United States

ABSTRACT

This research aims to illuminate health disparities between people with depression and those without. A sample of 27,164 people without depression and 3,797 people with self-reported depression were selected from the 2013 BRFSS. The results indicate that people with depression have higher odds of having chronic diseases and smoking but lower odds of eating fruits. Despite a higher insured rate of people with depression, more of them experienced financial barriers to health care due to the cost. People with depression had a higher odds of having health insurance, having a healthcare provider, and experiencing financial barriers to healthcare

KEYWORDS:

• Chronic dieseases, HRQOL
• depression
• health behaviors
• health disparities
• healthcare access

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Research involving human participants and/or animals

In February 2017, this study was approved by the IRB. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2005), the BRFSS coordinator submitted all questions approved by the Assessment Operations Group (AOG) to the Human Research Review Board to follow ethical standards. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was collected from all individual participants and treated by CDC. The informed consent form can be found at the following link- https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewIC?ref_nbr=201610–0920–009&icID=227942.