Inequities noted in outcomes by age, sex, and racial and ethnic group
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Jan. 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Poor mental health was increasingly prevalent from 2011 to 2022, with inequities discernible by age, sex, and racial and ethnic group, according to a research letter published online Jan. 15 in JAMA Network Open.
Emily Wright, Ph.D., from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues analyzed 2011 to 2022 data from three nationally representative repeated cross-sectional surveys (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System [BRFSS]; National Survey on Drug Use and Health [NSDUH]; and National Health Interview Survey [NHIS]) to quantify the prevalence of poor mental health.
The researchers found that 35.7 to 42.5 percent of adults in the BRFSS experienced poor mental health from 2011 to 2022. Despite using the same psychological distress measure, 31.1 to 35.8 percent experienced poor mental health in the NSDUH compared with 18.7 to 20.5 percent in the NHIS. In subgroup analyses focusing on the BRFSS and NSDUH, poor mental health prevalence was higher among younger adults and lower among older adults until 2020, when prevalence stabilized or decreased among younger adults and increased or remained stable in older adults. Consistently higher poor mental health prevalence was seen among female versus male adults. This gap widened in 2020 to 2021, then decreased in 2022. There was a narrowing or reversing in direction for some racial and ethnic inequities, which was driven by worsening mental health among White adults.
“Further research on mechanisms underlying observed trends before and since 2020 is needed to inform policy and clinical interventions to improve population mental health and health equity,” the authors write.
One author disclosed ties to Gilead.
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