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Immigration to the USA and risk for mood and anxiety disorders: variation by origin and age at immigration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2008

J. Breslau ,
G. Borges ,
Y. Hagar ,
D. Tancredi  and
S. Gilman
J. Breslau*
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Reducing Health Disparities, Sacramento, CA, USA
G. Borges
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria, Mexico City, Mexico
Y. Hagar
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, Davis, CA, USA
D. Tancredi
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Davis, CA, USA
S. Gilman
Affiliation:
Departments of Society, Human Development, and Health, and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: J. Breslau, Ph.D., Sc.D., University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Reducing Health Disparities, 2921 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Risk for mood and anxiety disorders associated with US-nativity may vary across immigrant groups.

Method

Using data from the National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), we examined the association of lifetime risk for mood and anxiety disorders with US-nativity and age at immigration across seven subgroups of the US population defined by country or region of ancestral origin: Mexico, Puerto-Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Africa and the Caribbean. Discrete time survival models were used to compare lifetime risk between the US-born, immigrants who arrived in the USA prior to the age of 13 years and immigrants who arrived in the USA at the age of 13 years or older.

Results

The association of risk for mood and anxiety disorders with US-nativity varies significantly across ancestral origin groups (p<0.001). Among people from Mexico, Eastern Europe, and Africa or the Caribbean, risk for disorders is lower relative to the US-born among immigrants who arrived at the age of 13 years or higher (odds ratios in the range 0.34–0.49) but not among immigrants who arrived prior to the age of 13 years. There is no association between US-nativity and risk for disorder among people from Western Europe and Puerto Rico.

Conclusions

Low risk among immigrants relative to the US-born is limited to groups among whom risk for mood and anxiety disorder is low in immigrants who spent their pre-adolescent years outside of the USA.

Keywords

Anxiety disordersepidemiologyimmigrationmood disorderesUnited States
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 39 , Issue 7 , July 2009 , pp. 1117 - 1127
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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