Project Extension | Language minorities and the risk of depression among individuals suffering from a chronic disease: a retrospective study of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

One-year project extension for a previously funded project. See here.

---

Outcomes:

• Farid, D., Li, P., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2022). Determinants of loss to follow-up in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging: a retrospective cohort study. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 76(12), 1011–1018. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2022-219307

• Farid, D., Li, P., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2022). Determinants of loss to follow-up in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging: a retrospective cohort study. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 76(12), 1011–1018. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2022-219307

• Farid, D., Li, P., Da Costa, D., Afif, W., Szabo, J., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2020). Undiagnosed depression, persistent depressive symptoms and seeking mental health care: analysis of immigrant and non-immigrant participants of the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 29, e158. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796020000670

Language minorities and the risk of depression among individuals suffering from a chronic disease: a retrospective study of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

The risk of depression in individuals with diabetes has not been evaluated in relation to language. Communication barriers may lead to isolation and impaired access to health care. This may affect the mental well-being of individuals specially those also suffering from a chronic disease such as diabetes. Researchers will use baseline and 3-year follow-up data of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging Comprehensive cohort (CLSA; 2012-2015 and 2015-2018; ages 45-85 years, N=21,000) to determine, among those with and those without diabetes, the effect of maternal language (French, English or Other) on the risk of depression at three years and on the rate of seeking mental health care for depression.

The cohort will include CLSA participants without baseline depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression-10 score<10 and no depression treatment). These will be separated by baseline diabetes status (HbA1c ≥7% and/or self-reported diabetes). Maternal language will be the ‘language first learnt at home and still understood’ (French, English or Other). English (French) speaking minorities will be those with ‘Other’ native language and English (French) as the language most spoken at home. The associations between maternal language and language minorities and the outcomes of interests will be examined overall and by diabetes status using multivariate logistic regression models.

Findings will help health care providers and program developers tailor their services toward reducing language barriers for minorities to help curb their risk of depression and appropriately manage their diabetes and mental health disorders.

---

Outputs:

• Farid, D., Li, P., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2022). Determinants of loss to follow-up in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging: a retrospective cohort study. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 76(12), 1011–1018. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2022-219307

• Farid, D., Li, P., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2022). Determinants of loss to follow-up in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging: a retrospective cohort study. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 76(12), 1011–1018. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2022-219307

• Farid, D., Li, P., Da Costa, D., Afif, W., Szabo, J., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2020). Undiagnosed depression, persistent depressive symptoms and seeking mental health care: analysis of immigrant and non-immigrant participants of the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 29, e158. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796020000670