Association between experiences of discrimination and mental health among persons with disabilities in Canada during the COVID 19 pandemic

Discrimination against Persons with disabilities (PWDs), a pervasive issue that predates COVID-19, was reportedly magnified and manifested in both overt and subtle ways during the pandemic with implications for the mental health (MH) of PWDs. Nonetheless, far less work has focused on how experiences of discrimination affected the MH of PWDs during the pandemic in Canada. By utilizing data from the 2022 Canadian General Social Survey (N = 13,347), a subset of PWDs, for cross-sectional analyses of the impact of discrimination on mental health (MH) of PWDs, the results indicate that individuals who experienced discrimination based on their physical/mental disability status, physical appearance, and sex, all significantly reported lower odds of High Self-rated Mental Health (HSRMH) relative to those who did not experience these forms of discrimination. Those with multiple disability counts further reported lower odds of HSRMH relative those with only one disability count. On the contrary, having strong social connections, correlated more with HSRMH. Moreover, age, marital status, educational attainment, immigration status, and province of residence significantly predicted the MH of PWDSs in the study context. Thus, disability-related discrimination adversely affects the MH of PWDs in Canada, particularly, those with multiple disabilities.