An Exploratory Study of the Association between Housing Price Trends and Antidepressant Use in Taiwan: A 10-Year Population-Based Study

Chen-Yin Lee, Pao-Huan Chen and Yen-Kuang Lin
Additional contact information
Chen-Yin Lee: Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Mingdao University, ChangHua 52345, Taiwan
Pao-Huan Chen: Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei 110, Taiwan
Yen-Kuang Lin: Statistics Center, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: This study examined the relationship between various economic indexes and incidences of antidepressant prescriptions during 2001–2011 using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). As of 2007, approximately 98.4% of Taiwanese people were enrolled in the NHIRD. In total, 531,281 records identified as antidepressant prescriptions were collected. Furthermore, 2556 quarterly observations from the Taiwan Housing Index (THI) and Executive Yuan were retrieved. We examined the association between the housing index and antidepressant prescription incidence. During the 10-year follow-up period, a higher incidence of antidepressant prescriptions was associated with the local maximum housing index. The relative risk of being prescribed antidepressant increased by 13.3% (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01~1.27) when the THI reached a peak. For the low-income subgroup, the relative risk of being prescribed antidepressants increased by 28% during the high season of the THI. We also stratified the study sample on the basis of their sex, age, and urbanization levels. Both sexes followed similar patterns. During 2001–2011, although rising economic indexes may have increased incomes and stimulated the housing market, the compromise of public mental health could be a cost people have to pay additional attention to.

Keywords: housing prices; mental disorder; antidepressant; economic movement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4839/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4839/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4839-:d:547366

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().