Linking Women's Empowerment to Mental Health Symptoms: Population-Based Study.

BACKGROUND: Mental health disorders represent a growing global challenge, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where women are disproportionately affected by social and structural inequalities. Although women's empowerment has been increasingly recognized as a strategy to improve physical health, its relationship with mental health remains less well understood. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the association between women's empowerment and mental health symptoms among ever-married women in Bangladesh. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from the 2022 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Women's empowerment was measured using the Survey-Based Women's Empowerment (SWPER) Global index across 3 domains: attitudes toward violence, social independence, and decision-making. Associations between empowerment domains and depressive symptoms, anxiety, and any mental health symptoms were assessed using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Empowerment in the attitudes toward violence domain was significantly associated with mental health outcomes. Women with low empowerment in this domain had higher odds of depression (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.81, 95% CI 1.16-2.81), anxiety (aOR 1.46, 95% CI 1.10-1.94), and any mental health symptoms (aOR 1.63, 95% CI 1.27-2.10). No significant associations were found for the social independence or decision-making domains. CONCLUSIONS: Higher empowerment in the "attitudes toward violence" domain was associated with a lower prevalence of common mental health symptoms, suggesting that addressing gender-based violence norms may improve women's mental health in Bangladesh.