Myroniuk Tyler W, Sidze Estelle M, White Michael J, Mberu Blessing, Madhavan Sangeetha
University of Missouri, Department of Public Health, 826 Lewis Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), APHRC Campus, Manga Close, Kirawa Road, Nairobi, Kenya.
SSM Ment Health. 2025 Jun;7. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmmh.2025.100430. Epub 2025 Mar 13.
In Africa, the nexus between mental well-being and residential mobility is understudied, especially in urban settings. World Health Organization estimates show that the African continent, as a whole, has some of the world's highest rates of postpartum depressive disorders. Understanding how residential mobility shapes the risk of depression among urban poor mothers in African contexts is of high importance to public health, given the competing, gendered, domestic demands that mothers face and the need to secure their families' livelihoods via job opportunities that cities offer.
We utilize observational survey data from the first four waves of the Jamaa na Afya ya Mtoto (JAMO) study (March 2022-October 2023). The study enrolled 1203 mothers aged 18-29 with at least one child 0-24 months, via simple random sampling, at Wave 1 to understand the relationships between marriage, kinship, and children's health and development outcomes in two urban informal settlements: Korogocho and Viwandani. Mental health data were collected among mothers using the CES-D-10 scale. In this study, we utilize longitudinal regressions to test whether changes in mothers' risk of depression are associated with changes in residential mobility, and vice versa.
One in four women has experienced at least one residential movement over the study period in both informal settlements. There is an elevated risk of depression among women who move to Viwandani in particular, an informal settlement which borders Nairobi's industrial area and inhabited in majority by individuals operating in the neighboring industries. This risk appears to be driven mostly by mothers not born in Nairobi.
While residential mobility can operate as the path to personal, familial, and societal betterment in urban poor settings, the movement inevitably involves changes in neighborhood contexts and is associated with dislocation and stress.
在非洲，心理健康与居住流动性之间的联系尚未得到充分研究，尤其是在城市环境中。世界卫生组织的估计表明，整个非洲大陆是世界上产后抑郁症发病率最高的地区之一。鉴于母亲们面临着相互竞争的、基于性别的家庭需求，以及需要通过城市提供的就业机会来保障家庭生计，了解居住流动性如何影响非洲城市贫困母亲患抑郁症的风险对公共卫生至关重要。
我们利用了“Jamaa na Afya ya Mtoto”（JAMO）研究前四波（2022年3月至2023年10月）的观察性调查数据。该研究通过简单随机抽样，在第一波招募了1203名年龄在18 - 29岁之间、至少有一个0 - 24个月大孩子的母亲，以了解在两个城市非正式住区：科罗戈乔和维万达尼中，婚姻、亲属关系与儿童健康及发育结果之间的关系。使用CES - D - 10量表收集母亲们的心理健康数据。在本研究中，我们利用纵向回归来检验母亲患抑郁症风险的变化是否与居住流动性的变化相关，反之亦然。
在这两个非正式住区，四分之一的女性在研究期间至少经历了一次居住变动。特别是搬到维万达尼的女性患抑郁症的风险有所升高，维万达尼是一个与内罗毕工业区接壤的非正式住区，大多数居民在周边行业工作。这种风险似乎主要由非内罗毕出生的母亲驱动。
虽然居住流动性在城市贫困环境中可以成为个人、家庭和社会改善的途径，但这种变动不可避免地涉及邻里环境的变化，并与流离失所和压力相关。
