Intersectional Effect of Gender, Race, and Socioeconomic Status in Mental Health Service Utilization: Evidence from the Canadian Community Health Survey 2015-2016.

Abstract

This study examined the intersectional effects of gender, race, and socioeconomic status (SES) on mental health service utilization (MHSU) employing the intersectionality framework. Data was extracted from Canadian Community Health Survey 2015-2016 with a total of 85,619 sample. Covariate adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) and the predicted probability of MHSU from intersectional analyses were estimated using Poisson regression with robust variance. The prevalence of MHSU was 15.04% overall, 19.61% among women, 10.27% among men, 21.56% among white women and 11.12% among white men. The study observed overall significant intersectional effect of SES by gender and race on MHSU. For instance, white men with the lowest income were more likely to have MHSU compared to their counterparts. Similarly, the predicted probability of MHSU decreased with the increase of SES that varied by gender and race. Two-way and three-way interactions also confirmed statistical significance (p-interaction < 0.05) of intersectional effect of gender, race, and SES. The observed socioeconomic differences in MHSU across gender and racial groups can be explained by intersectionality.