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Rural–urban migration and depression in ageing family members left behind

Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, UK

Sureeporn Punpuing, PhD

Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

Tawanchai Jirapramukpitak, PhD

Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Pathumani, Thailand

Philip Guest, PhD and Kanchana Tangchonlatip, PhD

Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

Morven Leese, PhD and Martin Prince, MD

Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, UK

Correspondence: Melanie A. Abas, PO 60, HSPRD, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London SE5 8AF, UK. Email: m.abas{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

None.

Funding

This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust (WT 078567).

Background

It has been suggested that rural–urban migration will have adverse consequences for older parents left behind.

Aims

To describe correlates of outmigration and to estimate any association between outmigration of children and depression in rural-dwelling older parents.

Method

Population-based survey of 1147 parents aged 60 and over in rural Thailand. We randomly oversampled parents living without children. We defined an outmigrant child as living outside their parent’s district, and measured depression as a continuous outcome with a Thai version of the EURO–D.

Results

Outmigration of all children, compared with outmigration of some or no children, was independently associated with less depression in parents. This association remained after taking account of social support, parent characteristics, health and wealth. Parents with all children outmigrated received more economic remittances and they perceived support to be as good as that of those with children close by.

Conclusions

Outmigration of children was not associated with greater depression in older parents and, after taking account of a range of possible covariables, was actually associated with less parental depression. This could be explained by pre-existing advantages in families sending more migrants and by the economic benefits of migration.

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