Household Overcrowding Trajectories and Mental Health

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114051

Commentary

It is well known that a person's housing environment and household overcrowding over time can have a negative impact on physical and mental health.

Using a panel dataset of 10,024 Chilean households, we sought to determine whether changes in household overcrowding levels from 2006 to 2009 were associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms in 2009, as measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).

In addition, we followed people to identify those whose overcrowding changed as a result of changes in household size or changes in housing conditions.

In households, increasing levels of overcrowding were shown to be associated with increased depressive symptoms, while a constant or decreasing trajectory of household overcrowding was not associated with changes in depressive symptoms. This result suggests an asymmetric relationship between household density and mental health in a three-year window, and highlights the importance of preventive housing policies to address overcrowding, alongside policies to reduce existing overcrowding.