Differential effects of unemployment on depression in people living with HIV/AIDS: a quantile regression approach

ABSTRACT

Unemployment is associated with depression in people living with HIV (PLWH). However, few studies have examined the effects of unemployment on PLWH with different levels of depression. The current study explores the plausible differential effects of unemployment on the different percentiles of depression in PLWH employing a quantile regression (QR) approach, based on a recent survey of 411 PLWH in China. Among participants, 47.7% had elevated depressive symptoms, and 23.8% were unemployed. The effects of unemployment on depression were statistically significant with a trend of initial increase followed by a decline at the quantile levels of 0.51–0.90 of depression. The maximum effect of unemployment status on depression was statistically significant at the 70th and 75th percentiles of depression (coefficient = 7.0, p < .01). Tailored strategies and interventions should be implemented to address the differential needs of PLWH with various levels of depressive symptoms.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• unemployment
• depression
• quantile regression
• China

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the administrative support from the Guangzhou Number Eight People’s Hospital. We also thank all the participants for their time and efforts as well as the reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Chengbo Zeng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3512-1115

Shelene Gentz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3394-0897

Jiaying Qiao http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1171-5098

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 81302517 and 71573290].