(OR26-01-26) Effects of Perceived Discrimination and Food Insecurity on Depression and Anxiety Among All of Us Research Programs Participants

Objectives: Perceived discrimination and food insecurity have been identified by several past studies as social stressors that commonly shape individuals’ daily lives, yet their combined effects on mental health are underexplored. This study examines the relationship between these experiences and mental health outcomes of all of us research participants.

Methods: Using data from the “All of Us” research program, we analyzed data from 33,220 adult participants who consented to sharing their EHR and completed their survey data on basic and social determinant variables. Depression and anxiety were analyzed separately using multivariable logistic regression while adjusting for key covariates. Adjusted predicted probability plots were generated to visualize differences across exposure groups.

Results: Individuals who reported discrimination had a higher prevalence of depression (9.8%) and anxiety (11.8%) compared to 6.4% depression and 7.6% anxiety prevalence amongst those who do not report perceived discrimination. After adjusting for covariates, discrimination continues to show a modest but statistically significant relationship with both depression (AOR = 1.133) and anxiety (AOR = 1.12). Food insecurity is associated with increased odds of mental health symptoms. The adjusted predicted probability plots also illustrated a consistently higher adjusted probability of both depression and anxiety among those reporting both food insecurity and discrimination.

Conclusions: Perceived discrimination and food insecurity exert both independent and interconnected effects on depression and anxiety. Effect sizes may appear minimal, but these social stressors represent a meaningful contributor to psychological distress. Addressing material hardship and discrimination may help lessen mental health burdens among the population.

Funding Sources: We gratefully acknowledge All of Us participants for their contributions; without whom this research would not have been possible. We also thank the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program for making available the participant data examined in this study.