Racial/Ethnic Disparities of Depressive Symptoms in the United States A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data

Although a growing body of research has documented racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms in the United States, the precise magnitude of these differences is not known. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data to (1) estimate the average difference of depressive symptoms between Whites and racial/ethnic minorities, as well as differences between (i.e., Asian American, African American, Latinxs, Multiracial, Native American, other race) and within (i.e., Latinx: Central American, Cuban American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, other Latinx) minority groups, and (2) determine if moderators account for these differences. We screened 2,425 nationally-representative studies from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), and identified 127 datasets of studies conducted from 1971 to 2018. We included 73 datasets from 26 nationally-representative studies (N = 2,116,853). The average absolute difference was d = 0.09, 95% CI [0.07, 0.12] between White and minority participants; was d = 0.07, 95% CI [0.06, 0.09] between minority participants; and d = 0.10, 95% CI [0.06, 0.15] within minority Latinx participants. Increases in socioeconomic status exacerbated these disparities. Psychometric analyses showed that measure reliability was related to larger differences. We discuss the implications of these findings.