Importance of Social Determinants in Screening for Depression

Importance: The most common screening tool for depression is the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Despite extensive research on the clinical and behavioral implications of the PHQ-9, data are limited on the relationship between PHQ-9 scores and social determinants of health and disease.

Objective: To assess the relationship between the PHQ-9 at intake and other measurements intended to assess social determinants of health.

Design, setting, and participants: Cross-sectional analyses of 2502 participants from the Baseline Health Study (BHS), a prospective cohort of adults selected to represent major demographic groups in the US; participants underwent deep phenotyping on demographic, socioeconomic, clinical, laboratory, functional, and imaging findings.

Interventions: None.

Main outcomes and measures: Cross-sectional measures of clinical and socioeconomic status (SES).

Results: In addition to a host of clinical and biological factors, higher PHQ-9 scores were associated with female sex, younger participants, people of color, and Hispanic ethnicity. Multiple measures of low SES, including less education, being unmarried, not currently working, and lack of insurance, were also associated with higher PHQ-9 scores across the entire spectrum of PHQ-9 scores. A summative score of SES, which was the 6th most predictive factor, was associated with higher PHQ-9 score after adjusting for 150 clinical, lab testing, and symptomatic characteristics.

Conclusions and relevance: Our findings underscore that depression should be considered a comorbidity when social determinants of health are addressed, and both elements should be considered when designing appropriate interventions.