The Causal Relationship Between Income Deprivation and Depression with Special Emphases on the Importance of Spatiality
| Dec 31, 2023
Article Category: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Published Online: Dec 31, 2023
Page range: 505 - 518
Received: Aug 01, 2023
Accepted: Dec 01, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ers-2023-0033
Keywords
© 2023 Hanga Lilla Bilicz et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Subject and purpose of work
This paper focuses on the causal relationship between territorial levels of income deprivation and depression. It seeks to shed light on the importance of spatial dependence in said relationship.
Materials and methods
The paper uses the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation as a data source to model the level of depression present across Scotland dependent on income deprivation and health and education control variables. OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) modelling is used to confirm causality and a SARMA (Spatial Autoregressive Moving Average) model is built to capture the spatial dimension as well.
Results
Evidence is found that geographical space has an effect on the relationship between depression and deprivation, and the presence of spillover effects to neighbouring areas, and hence a multiplier effect can also be assumed.
Conclusions
Taking the found spatial multiplier effect into account when making resource allocation decisions could help to better target policies regarding e.g. social wellbeing and mental health.