Social Isolation, Healthy Habits, Inequality and Mental Health in the United States

Ignacio Amate-Fortes (), Almudena Guarnido-Rueda (), Diego Martínez-Navarro () and Francisco J. Oliver-Márquez ()
Additional contact information
Ignacio Amate-Fortes: University of Almeria
Almudena Guarnido-Rueda: University of Almeria
Diego Martínez-Navarro: University of Almeria
Francisco J. Oliver-Márquez: University of Almeria

Applied Research in Quality of Life, 2023, vol. 18, issue 4, No 3, 1617-1643

Abstract: Abstract The objective of this work is to deepen the analysis of the socioeconomic determinants of mental health, paying special attention to the impact of inequality, not only in income distribution but also in gender, racial, health and education inequality, social isolation, including new variables to measure loneliness, and healthy habits, on the mental health status. For this purpose, a cross-sectional model for a sample of 2735 counties in the United States is estimated using Ordinary Least Squares in its robust version to solve the detected heteroscedasticity problems. The results obtained show that inequality, social isolation and certain lifestyles, such as smoking or insomnia, are detrimental to mental health, while sexual activity prevents mental distress. On the other hand, poor counties suffer more cases of suicide, with food insecurity being the main problem for mental health. Finally, we found detrimental effects of pollution on mental health.

Keywords: Mental health; Suicide; Inequality; Social isolation; Healthy habits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I12 I14 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-023-10155-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:ariqol:v:18:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11482-023-10155-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11482

DOI: 10.1007/s11482-023-10155-2

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Research in Quality of Life is currently edited by Daniel Shek

More articles in Applied Research in Quality of Life from Springer, International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().