Rural-urban migration patterns and mental health diagnoses of adolescents and young adults in British Columbia, Canada : a case-control study
Date
2010-05-13
Authors
Maggi, Stefania
Ostry, Aleck
Callaghan, Kristy
Hershler, Ruth
Chen, Lisa
D'Angiulli, Amedeo
Hertzman, Clyde
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Background: The identification of mental health problems early in life can increase the well-being of children and
youth. Several studies have reported that youth who experience mental health disorders are also at a greater risk of
developing psychopathological conditions later in life, suggesting that the ability of researchers and clinicians to
identify mental health problems early in life may help prevent adult psychopathology. Using large-scale administrative
data, this study examined whether permanent settlement and within-province migration patterns may be linked to
mental health diagnoses among adolescents (15 to 19 years old), young adults (20 to 30 years old), and adults (30 years
old and older) who grew up in rural or urban communities or migrated between types of community (N = 8,502).
Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study of the impact of rural compared to urban residence and ruralurban
provincial migration patterns on diagnosis of mental health. Conditional logistic regression models were run
with the following International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision (ICD-9) mental health diagnoses as the
outcomes: neurotic disorders, personality disorder, acute reaction to stress, adjustment reaction, depression, alcohol
dependence, and nondependent drug abuse. Analyses were conducted controlling for paternal mental health and
sociodemographic characteristics.
Results: Mental health diagnoses were selectively associated with stability and migration patterns. Specifically,
adolescents and young adults who were born in and grew up in the same rural community were at lower risk of being
diagnosed with acute reaction to stress (OR = 0.740) and depression (OR = 0.881) compared to their matched controls
who were not born in and did not grow up in the same rural community. Furthermore, adolescents and young adults
migrating between rural communities were at lower risk of being diagnosed with adjustment reaction (OR = 0.571)
than those not migrating between rural communities. No differences were found for diagnoses of neurotic disorders,
personality disorder, alcohol dependence, and nondependent drug abuse.
Conclusions: This study provides some compelling evidence of the protective role of rural environments in the
development of specific mental health conditions (i.e., depression, adjustment reaction, and acute reaction to stress)
among the children of sawmill workers in Western Canada.
Description
BioMed Central
Keywords
Citation
Maggi et al., Rural-urban migration patterns and mental health diagnoses of adolescents and young adults in British Columbia, Canada: a case-control study Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 2010, 4:13