Rural–urban migration and depression in ageing family membersleft behind

BackgroundIt has been suggested that rural–urban migration will have adverseconsequences for older parents left behind.AimsTo describe correlates of outmigration and to estimate any associationbetween outmigration of children and depression in rural-dwelling olderparents.MethodPopulation-based survey of 1147 parents aged 60 and over in ruralThailand. We randomly oversampled parents living without children. Wedefined an outmigrant child as living outside their parent's district,and measured depression as a continuous outcome with a Thai version ofthe EURO–D.ResultsOutmigration of all children, compared with outmigration of some or nochildren, was independently associated with less depression in parents.This association remained after taking account of social support, parentcharacteristics, health and wealth. Parents with all children outmigratedreceived more economic remittances and they perceived support to be asgood as that of those with children close by.ConclusionsOutmigration of children was not associated with greater depression inolder parents and, after taking account of a range of possiblecovariables, was actually associated with less parental depression. Thiscould be explained by pre-existing advantages in families sending moremigrants and by the economic benefits of migration.