TY - JOUR
T1 - Mental health inequalities in 9 former soviet union countries
T2 - Evidence from the previous decade
AU - Goryakin, Yevgeniy
AU - Suhrcke, Marc
AU - Roberts, Bayard
AU - McKee, Martin
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - In the previous two decades, countries of the former Soviet Union underwent substantive economic and social changes. While there has been some limited evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic well-being and mental health in the developing and transitional economies, the evidence on economic inequalities in mental health has so far been scarce. In this paper, we analyse two unique datasets collected in 2001 (N=18,428) and in 2010 (N=17,998) containing data on 9 countries of the former Soviet Union, exploring how mental health inequalities have changed between 2001 and 2010. Using regression analysis, as well as the indirect standardization approach, we found that mental health appears to have substantially improved in most studied countries during the past decade. Specifically, both the proportion of people with poor mental health, as well as wealth-related inequalities in poor mental health, decreased in almost all countries, except Georgia. Hence, we did not find evidence of a trade-off between changes in average and distributional mental health indicators between 2001 and 2010. Our findings give ground for optimism that at least on these measures, the most difficult times associated with the transition to a market economy in this region may be coming to an end.
AB - In the previous two decades, countries of the former Soviet Union underwent substantive economic and social changes. While there has been some limited evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic well-being and mental health in the developing and transitional economies, the evidence on economic inequalities in mental health has so far been scarce. In this paper, we analyse two unique datasets collected in 2001 (N=18,428) and in 2010 (N=17,998) containing data on 9 countries of the former Soviet Union, exploring how mental health inequalities have changed between 2001 and 2010. Using regression analysis, as well as the indirect standardization approach, we found that mental health appears to have substantially improved in most studied countries during the past decade. Specifically, both the proportion of people with poor mental health, as well as wealth-related inequalities in poor mental health, decreased in almost all countries, except Georgia. Hence, we did not find evidence of a trade-off between changes in average and distributional mental health indicators between 2001 and 2010. Our findings give ground for optimism that at least on these measures, the most difficult times associated with the transition to a market economy in this region may be coming to an end.
KW - Eastern europe and central asia
KW - Former soviet union
KW - Health inequalities
KW - Mental health
KW - Socioeconomic inequalities
KW - Standardisation
KW - Transitional economies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84911935924&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.11.021
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.11.021
M3 - Article
C2 - 25461871
AN - SCOPUS:84911935924
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 124
SP - 142
EP - 151
JO - Social science and medicine
JF - Social science and medicine
ER -