Neighborhood deprivation and aging sexual minority people's mental health
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1
California State University Los Angeles, United States
2
University of Toronto, Canada
Publication date: 2023-04-27
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A1246
ABSTRACT
Background and Objective: Previous studies have explored the impact of interpersonal level factors on sexual minority people’s mental health outcomes. Even though increased number of studies are discussing sexual minority aging and mental health, the importance of neighborhood level factors has not been discussed extensively. Hence, the current study examined how neighborhood social and material deprivation levels contribute to aging sexual minority people’s depression. Methods: The current study used the baseline data of the Canadian longitudinal study on aging (CLSA) in order to conduct a series of regression analysis. The Canadian urban environmental health research consortium (CANUE) data was also linked to the CLSA data to investigate the relationship between sexual minority identity and depression while considerting the role of neighborhood deprivation. 48,792 adults, over the age of 45, were included in the analyses (47,792 heterosexual, 760 homosexual, and 240 bisexual adults). Each model had a moderator (material or social deprivation) to explore the neighborhood deprivation’s influence. Analyses were stratified by gender and age was included as a control variable. Results: The results indicate that lesbian identity and neighborhood material deprivation levels contribute to aging lesbian adults’ depression levels when compared to their heterosexual and bisexual counterparts. For aging men, bisexuality and neighborhood material deprivation influenced aging bisexual men’s depression levels when they are compared to aging heterosexual and gay men. Conclusions: The current study shows that neighborhood material deprivation level significantly contributes to aging sexual minority people’s mental health outcomes. Such results point to the need of community level services for aging sexual minority adults, especially for those residing in materially deprived neighborhoods. Further efforts to develop intervention strategies to serve this vulnerable population would elicit positive aging experiences for aging sexual minority people.