Depression: Does water matter?

Abstract

Subjective well-being is a metric for assessing the effectiveness of public policy. However, the relationship between depression, an important indicator of subjective well-being, and access to clean water (ACW) has received scant attention. This study investigates the effect of ACW on depression using the 2014–2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Using ordinary least squares (OLS) two-way fixed effects (FE) estimation, the results indicate that ACW leads to lower levels of depression. The ACW–depression relationship is mediated by individual self-reported health and household food expenditure, but the mechanism varies across subsamples, as determined by structural equation modelling of the underlying mechanisms. The results of the heterogeneity analysis demonstrated that the total effect of the absence of ACW on depression is mitigated when rural migrants reside in cities, and that the effect disappears entirely when the migrant has an urban hukou. These findings demonstrate the negative impact of urban–rural disparities and hukou issues on mental health. HIGHLIGHTS Access to clean water (ACW) is significantly associated with a lower depression score.; Food expenditure and health are important transmission channels through which ACW mitigates depression.; This study constructs a comprehensive insight to explain the phenomenon that the mediation on the ACW-depression nexus is heterogeneous in subsamples.;

Keywords

• access to clean water
• china family panel studies
• depression
• heterogeneity analysis
• mechanism analysis
• structural equation modelling