Rural white women in South more likely than African-American women to suffer from depression

Rural white women in the South are more likely to suffer from depression and mood disorder than urban white women, while rural African American women in the South are less likely than their urban counterparts to suffer from depression, says a study by the University of Michigan published in JAMA Psychiatry, Honor Whiteman reports for Medical News Today. Overall, white women from rural and urban areas had much higher rates of depression than rural and urban African-American women.

The study used data from the U.S. National Survey of American Life that included 1,462 African-American and 341 non-Hispanic white women who live in rural and urban areas in the South. The goal was "to examine the interaction of urbanicity and race/ethnicity on lifetime and 12-month major depressive disorder and mood disorder prevalence for African American women and non-Hispanic white women," the study says.

The study found that 10.3 percent of rural non-Hispanic white women have a prevalence of 12-month major depression, compared to 3.7 percent of urban white women, and 10.3 percent of rural non-Hispanic white women have a prevalence of 12-month mood disorder, compared to 3.8 percent of urban white women, Whiteman writes.

Rural African-American women had a major depression rate of 6.7 percent, compared to 13.9 percent for urban African-American women, and rural African-American women had a mood disorder rate of 3.3 percent, compared to 7.6 percent for urban women, Whiteman writes.

Overall, white women had a major depression rate of 21.3 percent and mood disorder rate of 21.8 percent, compared to a 10.1 percent major depressive rate and a 13.6 percent mood disorder rate for all African-American women, Whiteman writes.