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The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: Although cash transfer programmes are not explicitly designed to improve mental health, by reducing poverty and improving the life chances of children and young people, they may also improve their mental health. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the evidence on the effe...

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Autores principales: Zimmerman, Annie, Garman, Emily, Avendano-Pabon, Mauricio, Araya, Ricardo, Evans-Lacko, Sara, McDaid, David, Park, A-La, Hessel, Philipp, Diaz, Yadira, Matijasevich, Alicia, Ziebold, Carola, Bauer, Annette, Paula, Cristiane Silvestre, Lund, Crick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8088245/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33906845
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004661
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author Zimmerman, Annie
Garman, Emily
Avendano-Pabon, Mauricio
Araya, Ricardo
Evans-Lacko, Sara
McDaid, David
Park, A-La
Hessel, Philipp
Diaz, Yadira
Matijasevich, Alicia
Ziebold, Carola
Bauer, Annette
Paula, Cristiane Silvestre
Lund, Crick
author_facet Zimmerman, Annie
Garman, Emily
Avendano-Pabon, Mauricio
Araya, Ricardo
Evans-Lacko, Sara
McDaid, David
Park, A-La
Hessel, Philipp
Diaz, Yadira
Matijasevich, Alicia
Ziebold, Carola
Bauer, Annette
Paula, Cristiane Silvestre
Lund, Crick
author_sort Zimmerman, Annie
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Although cash transfer programmes are not explicitly designed to improve mental health, by reducing poverty and improving the life chances of children and young people, they may also improve their mental health. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the evidence on the effectiveness of cash transfers to improve the mental health of children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries. METHODS: We searched Pubmed, EBSCOhost, Scientific Electronic Library Online, ISI Web of Science and Social Sciences Citation Index and grey literature (from January 2000 to July 2020) for studies which quantitatively assessed the impact of cash transfers on mental health in young people (aged 0–24 years), using a design that incorporated a control group. We extracted Cohen’s d effects size and used a random-effects model for the meta-analysis on studies that measured depressive symptoms, I(2) statistic and assessment of study quality. RESULTS: We identified 12 116 articles for screening, of which 12 were included in the systematic review (covering 13 interventions) and seven in the meta-analysis assessing impact on depressive symptoms specifically. There was high heterogeneity (I(2)=95.2) and a high risk of bias (0.38, 95% CIs: −5.08 to 5.85; p=0.86) across studies. Eleven interventions (85%) showed a significant positive impact of cash transfers on at least one mental health outcome in children and young people. However, no study found a positive effect on all mental health outcomes examined, and the meta-analysis showed no impact of cash transfers on depressive symptoms (0.02, 95% CIs: −0.19 to 0.23; p=0.85). CONCLUSION: Cash transfers may have positive effects on some mental health outcomes for young people, with no negative effects identified. However, there is high heterogeneity across studies, with some interventions showing no effects. Our review highlights how the effect of cash transfers may vary by social and economic context, culture, design, conditionality and mental health outcome.
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spelling pubmed-80882452021-05-14 The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis Zimmerman, Annie Garman, Emily Avendano-Pabon, Mauricio Araya, Ricardo Evans-Lacko, Sara McDaid, David Park, A-La Hessel, Philipp Diaz, Yadira Matijasevich, Alicia Ziebold, Carola Bauer, Annette Paula, Cristiane Silvestre Lund, Crick BMJ Glob Health Original Research INTRODUCTION: Although cash transfer programmes are not explicitly designed to improve mental health, by reducing poverty and improving the life chances of children and young people, they may also improve their mental health. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the evidence on the effectiveness of cash transfers to improve the mental health of children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries. METHODS: We searched Pubmed, EBSCOhost, Scientific Electronic Library Online, ISI Web of Science and Social Sciences Citation Index and grey literature (from January 2000 to July 2020) for studies which quantitatively assessed the impact of cash transfers on mental health in young people (aged 0–24 years), using a design that incorporated a control group. We extracted Cohen’s d effects size and used a random-effects model for the meta-analysis on studies that measured depressive symptoms, I(2) statistic and assessment of study quality. RESULTS: We identified 12 116 articles for screening, of which 12 were included in the systematic review (covering 13 interventions) and seven in the meta-analysis assessing impact on depressive symptoms specifically. There was high heterogeneity (I(2)=95.2) and a high risk of bias (0.38, 95% CIs: −5.08 to 5.85; p=0.86) across studies. Eleven interventions (85%) showed a significant positive impact of cash transfers on at least one mental health outcome in children and young people. However, no study found a positive effect on all mental health outcomes examined, and the meta-analysis showed no impact of cash transfers on depressive symptoms (0.02, 95% CIs: −0.19 to 0.23; p=0.85). CONCLUSION: Cash transfers may have positive effects on some mental health outcomes for young people, with no negative effects identified. However, there is high heterogeneity across studies, with some interventions showing no effects. Our review highlights how the effect of cash transfers may vary by social and economic context, culture, design, conditionality and mental health outcome. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC8088245/ /pubmed/33906845 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004661 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Research
Zimmerman, Annie
Garman, Emily
Avendano-Pabon, Mauricio
Araya, Ricardo
Evans-Lacko, Sara
McDaid, David
Park, A-La
Hessel, Philipp
Diaz, Yadira
Matijasevich, Alicia
Ziebold, Carola
Bauer, Annette
Paula, Cristiane Silvestre
Lund, Crick
The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_fullStr The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full_unstemmed The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_short The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_sort impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8088245/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33906845
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004661
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