Household overcrowding trajectories and mental well-being

It has been widely documented that both housing conditions and household overcrowding over time negatively affect physical and mental health. However, scant evidence documents this dynamic relationship in the low- and middle-income countries of Latin America, where housing issues remain a relevant policy consideration. Employing a nationally representative panel dataset of 10,024 Chilean households, we examine whether variation in household overcrowding levels between 2006 and 2009 is associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms in 2009, measured by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). The survey allows us to follow households over time to identify those who have experienced variation in overcrowding due to changes in household size or due to changes in housing conditions, which do not occur too frequently over time. We find that an increase in household overcrowding levels (due to a reduction in the number of available bedrooms) is associated with an increase in depressive symptoms, while a constant or decreasing trajectory of household overcrowding over time is not associated with changes in depressive symptoms. These results suggest an asymmetric relationship between household density and mental health over a three-year window and highlight the importance of preventive housing policies to address overcrowding alongside policies to reduce existing overcrowding.