High depressive symptomatology among older community-dwelling Mexican Americans: The impact of immigration

Abstract

Objectives: This analysis explores nativity differences in depressive symptoms among very old (75+) community-dwelling Mexican Americans.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis using the fifth wave (2004–2005) of the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly (Hispanic EPESE).

Participants: The sample consisted of 1699 non-institutionalized Mexican American men and women aged 75 years and above. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Logistic regression was used to predict high depressive symptoms (CES-D score 16 or higher) and multinomial logistic regression was used to predict sub-threshold, moderate, and high depressive symptoms.

Results: Results showed that elders born in Mexico had higher odds of more depressive symptoms compared to otherwise similar Mexican Americans born in the US. Age of arrival, gender, and other covariates did not modify that risk.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that older Mexican American immigrants are at higher risk of depressive symptomatology compared to persons born in the US, which has significant implications for research, policy, and clinical practice.

Keywords:

• depressive symptomatology
• Hispanic Americans
• immigrants
• Mexican Americans

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (5 T32 AG000270-10).