Background: Risk for mood and anxiety disorders associated with US-nativity may vary across immigrant groups.
Method: Using data from the National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), we examined the association of lifetime risk for mood and anxiety disorders with US-nativity and age at immigration across seven subgroups of the US population defined by country or region of ancestral origin: Mexico, Puerto-Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Africa and the Caribbean. Discrete time survival models were used to compare lifetime risk between the US-born, immigrants who arrived in the USA prior to the age of 13 years and immigrants who arrived in the USA at the age of 13 years or older.
Results: The association of risk for mood and anxiety disorders with US-nativity varies significantly across ancestral origin groups (p<0.001). Among people from Mexico, Eastern Europe, and Africa or the Caribbean, risk for disorders is lower relative to the US-born among immigrants who arrived at the age of 13 years or higher (odds ratios in the range 0.34-0.49) but not among immigrants who arrived prior to the age of 13 years. There is no association between US-nativity and risk for disorder among people from Western Europe and Puerto Rico.
Conclusions: Low risk among immigrants relative to the US-born is limited to groups among whom risk for mood and anxiety disorder is low in immigrants who spent their pre-adolescent years outside of the USA.