Do the benefits of homeownership on mental health vary by race and poverty status? An application of doubly robust estimation for causal inference.

While empirical studies have observed that homeownership is associated with improved mental health conditions, research indicates that this relationship might vary by race. Moreover, such a White-Black disparity in the impacts of homeownership on mental health could be complexed by poverty status, as maintaining one's homeownership could be a financial burden for people living in poverty status, defined by the US official poverty threshold. We add to the existing literature by analyzing the impacts of homeownership on psychological distress, simultaneously disaggregating by race and poverty status using survey data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics from the 2017 and 2019 waves (N = 7059). Propensity score weighting and doubly robust estimation are applied to estimate causal inference for the impact of 2017 homeownership on 2019 psychological distress using negative binomial models. First, we found the impacts of homeownership on reducing psychological distress are significant for White Americans, not for Black Americans. Second, we found such a White-Black disparity is only observable for populations not living in poverty. On the other hand, for populations living in poverty, homeownership no longer lowers psychological distress for either race. Findings suggest that financial support and mental health support are needy to address inequality in the impacts of homeownership on mental health, which could simultaneously vary by poverty status and race. Implications are discussed.

[Epidemiological surveillance after filariasis transmission interrupted in Jiangxi Province].

In 10 years after the interruption of filariasis transmission, the surveillance covered 29.5% of the townships and 3.7% of the population in the endemic areas, and 25.8% and 2.5% respectively after 10 years. No case with microfilaremia was found. 8248 floating people were also blood-examined with negative result. No filarial larva was detected in 103 261 Culex quinquefasciatus dissected. Out of 70,3498 people investigated in 708 villages of 249 townships, 667 chronic filariasis patients were found. Among 2928 people formerly with microfilaremia, no positive was found. The results indicate that Jiangxi Province has met the criteria of filariasis elimination set by the Ministry of Health.