Neighborhood cultural environment and anxiety and depression symptoms among majority Mexican American adults: Results from the HCHS/SOL

Previous research on associations of neighborhood ethnic composition with indicators of mental health is limited, with findings mixed regarding the impact of Latine ethnic composition, language isolation, and other related factors in relation to depression. We hypothesized that neighborhood environments characterized by greater concentration of Latine culture were associated with lower odds of elevated self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms. We assessed cross-sectional associations at baseline between GIS-derived indicators of neighborhood cultural environments and self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms among San Diego Latines of mostly Mexican heritage. Logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, education level, household income and place of birth/duration of US residence were used. We found that for each standard deviation of increased perceived social cohesion, participants experienced a 15% reduction in the odds of displaying depressive symptomatology (OR 0.85, CI [0.74, 0.99], p 0.03). However, the cultural environment index, which reflects neighborhood acculturation, was not associated with depression or anxiety symptomatology.