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JAPNA Article: Men’s Depression and Anxiety: Contributing Factors and Barriers to Intervention - Mar-Apr 2024 (30.2)

There is clear evidence that depression and anxiety unduly impact urban, ethnically/racially diverse, impoverished men. Urban areas pose numerous challenges to mental health including loneliness, violence, crime, homelessness, noise, traffic accidents, and drug abuse (Okkels et al., 2018). Relative to race/ethnicity, the March 1 – March 13, 2023, CDC Household Pulse Survey reported that symptoms of anxiety or depression, over the past seven days, were reported by 35.1% of Hispanic adults, 34.4% Black adults, and 32.2% of White adults, and 41.9% of multiple race adults. Relative to gender, in this same period, 28.8% of men reported symptoms of anxiety or depression (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2023). Poverty also intersects with mental health status. African Americans and Hispanics living below the poverty level are two times more likely to report psychological distress as compared to same ethnicity peers over twice the poverty level (United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, 2023; 2021).  Clearly, the overlap of urban living, race/ethnicity, and poverty creates significant mental health inequity. A lack of understanding of men’s perceptions of the factors that contribute to their experience of depression and anxiety as well as barriers they experience in pursing intervention compounds this overrepresentation and inequity. 

Authors:  Mary Molewyk Doornbos, PhD, RN; Gail Landheer Zandee, MSN, RN

Disclosures: The APNA planner and authors have no relevant financial relationships or off-label uses to disclose.  

Target Audience:  RN, APRN

Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this article, the participant will be able to:

1. Describe the modifiable and non-modifiable factors that contribute to anxiety and depression in urban, racially/ethnically diverse, and impoverished men.
2. Identify the barriers that urban, racially/ethnically diverse, and impoverished men encounter when attempting to address depression and anxiety.

Keywords:  Depression, Anxiety, Poverty, Urban, Ethnic Diversity, Men

Nursing Continuing Professional Development:
1.0 contact hours.  * In order to receive contact hours, you must: read the entire article, complete an evaluation, honor statement, and earn a passing score on the post-test before the expiration date. You will have 5 tries to correctly answer the questions on the posttest and a score of 80% is required to pass. Once you have passed and completed the evaluation and honor statement, your nursing continuing professional development certificate will be generated online and available for immediate printing. Credit cannot be earned unless all components of the program are completed.  

Access to this course will end: April 30, 2026

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

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