Linking Women's Empowerment to Mental Health Symptoms: Population-Based Study

Mental health disorders represent a growing global challenge, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where women are disproportionately affected by social and structural inequalities. Although women's empowerment has been increasingly recognized as a strategy to improve physical health, its relationship with mental health remains less well understood.

This study examined the association between women's empowerment and mental health symptoms among ever-married women in Bangladesh.

A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from the 2022 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Women's empowerment was measured using the Survey-Based Women's Empowerment (SWPER) Global index across 3 domains: attitudes toward violence, social independence, and decision-making. Associations between empowerment domains and depressive symptoms, anxiety, and any mental health symptoms were assessed using multivariable logistic regression.

Empowerment in the attitudes toward violence domain was significantly associated with mental health outcomes. Women with low empowerment in this domain had higher odds of depression (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.81, 95% CI 1.16-2.81), anxiety (aOR 1.46, 95% CI 1.10-1.94), and any mental health symptoms (aOR 1.63, 95% CI 1.27-2.10). No significant associations were found for the social independence or decision-making domains.

Higher empowerment in the "attitudes toward violence" domain was associated with a lower prevalence of common mental health symptoms, suggesting that addressing gender-based violence norms may improve women's mental health in Bangladesh.