-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: This study examined the prevalence and predictors of past-year serious psychological distress and receipt of mental health services among community-dwelling older adults in the United States.
The sample included 9,957 adults aged 65 or older from the 2004-2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Serious psychological distress was defined as having a score of 13 or higher on the K6 scale of nonspecific psychological distress. Descriptive analyses and logistic regression modeling were applied.
Among community-dwelling older adults, 4.7% had serious psychological distress in the past year. Among those with past-year serious psychological distress, 37.7% received mental health services in the past year (4.8% received inpatient services, 15.8% received outpatient services, and 32.1% received prescription medications) (weighted percentages). Logistic regression results suggested that among older adults with serious psychological distress, receipt of mental health services was more likely among women, non-Hispanic whites, those who were married, those who were highly educated, Medicare-Medicaid dual beneficiaries, those with a major depressive episode, and those with more general medical conditions.
These results suggest the need to screen for mental health problems among older adults and to improve the use and the quality of their mental health services. Since 2008 significant changes have revolutionized payment for mental health care and may promote access to mental health care in this population. Further studies are needed to assess trends in mental health service utilization among older adults and in the quality of their mental health care over time.
Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) 03/2011; 62(3):291-8. · 2.81 Impact Factor
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: A psychometric analysis was conducted to reduce the number of items needed to assess the disability associated with mental disorders using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS). The WHODAS was to be used in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), beginning in 2008, as part of a screening algorithm to produce estimates of the prevalence of serious mental illness (SMI) in the US adult population. The goal of the work presented in this paper was to create a parsimonious screening scale from the full 16-item WHODAS that was administered to 24,156 respondents (aged 18+) in the 2002 NSDUH. Exploratory factor analysis showed that WHODAS responses were unidimensional. A two-parameter polytomous Item Response Theory model showed that all 16 WHODAS items had good item discrimination (slopes greater than 1.0) for each response option. Analysis of item difficulties and differential item function across socio-demographic categories was then used to select a subset of eight items to create a short version of the WHODAS. The Pearson correlation between scores in the original 16-item and reduced eight-item WHODAS scales was 0.97, documenting that the vast majority of variation in total scale scores was retained in the reduced scale.
International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 06/2010; 19 Suppl 1:49-60.
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The Mental Health Surveillance Study (MHSS) is an ongoing initiative by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to develop and implement methods for measuring the prevalence of serious mental illness (SMI) among adults in the USA. The 2008 MHSS used data from clinical interviews administered to a sub-sample of respondents to calibrate mental health screening scale data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) for estimating the prevalence of SMI in the full NSDUH sample. The mental health scales included the K6 screening scale of psychological distress (administered to all respondents) along with two measures of functional impairment (each administered to a random half-sample of respondents): the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) and the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) was administered to a sub-sample of 1506 adult NSDUH respondents within 4 weeks of completing the NSDUH interview. Results indicate that while SMI prediction accuracy of the K6 is improved by adding either the WHODAS or the SDS to the prediction equation, the models with the WHODAS are more robust. The results of the calibration study and methods used to derive prevalence estimates of SMI are presented.
International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 06/2010; 19 Suppl 1:61-87.
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The Mental Health Surveillance Study (MHSS) is an ongoing initiative by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to monitor the prevalence of serious mental illness (SMI) among adults in the USA. In 2008, the MHSS used data from clinical interviews to calibrate mental health data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) for estimating the prevalence of SMI based on the full NSDUH sample. The clinical interview used was the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM-IV; SCID). NSDUH interviews were administered via audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI) to a nationally representative sample of the population aged 12 years or older. A total of 46,180 NSDUH interviews were completed with adults aged 18 years or older in 2008. The SCID was administered by mental health clinicians to a sub-sample of 1506 adults via telephone. This paper describes the MHSS calibration study procedures, including information on sample selection, instrumentation, follow-up, data quality protocols, and management of distressed respondents.
International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 06/2010; 19 Suppl 1:36-48.
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Public health systems have relied on public health surveillance to plan health programs, and extensive surveillance systems exist for health behaviors and chronic disease. Mental health has used a separate data collection system that emphasizes measurement of disease prevalence and health care use. In recent years, efforts to integrate these systems have included adding chronic disease measures to the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys and depression measures to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; other data collection systems have been similarly enhanced. Ongoing challenges to integration include variations in interview protocols, use of different measures of behavior and disease, different interval reference periods, inclusion of substance abuse disorders, dichotomous vs continuous variables, and approaches to data collection. Future directions can address linking surveillance efforts more closely to the needs of state programs, increasing child health measurements in surveys, and improving knowledge dissemination from survey analyses.
Preventing chronic disease 01/2010; 7(1):A17. · 1.82 Impact Factor
-
Annals of epidemiology 04/2009; 19(3):210-1. · 2.95 Impact Factor
-
Bryce B Reeve,
Laurie B Burke,
Yen-pin Chiang,
Steven B Clauser, Lisa J Colpe,
Jeffrey W Elias,
John Fleishman,
Ann A Hohmann,
Wendy L Johnson-Taylor,
William Lawrence,
Claudia S Moy,
Louis A Quatrano,
William T Riley,
Barbara A Smothers,
Ellen M Werner
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Many of the Institutes, Agencies and Centers that make up the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) have recognized the need for better instrumentation in health outcomes research, and provide support, both internally and externally, for research utilizing advances in measurement theory and computer technology (informatics). In this paper, representatives from several DHHS agencies and institutes will discuss their need for better instruments within their discipline and describe current or future initiatives for exploring the benefits of these technologies. Together, the perspectives underscore the importance of developing valid, precise, and efficient measures to capture the full burden of disease and treatment on patients. Initiatives, like the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) to create health-related quality of life item banks, represent a trans-DHHS effort to develop a standard set of measures for informing decision making in clinical research, practice, and health policy.
Quality of Life Research 02/2007; 16 Suppl 1:175-86. · 2.30 Impact Factor
-
Ronald C Kessler,
Peggy R Barker, Lisa J Colpe,
Joan F Epstein,
Joseph C Gfroerer,
Eva Hiripi,
Mary J Howes,
Sharon-Lise T Normand,
Ronald W Manderscheid,
Ellen E Walters,
Alan M Zaslavsky
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Public Law 102-321 established a block grant for adults with "serious mental illness" (SMI) and required the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to develop a method to estimate the prevalence of SMI.
Three SMI screening scales were developed for possible use in the SAMHSA National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Short-Form (CIDI-SF) scale, the K10/K6 nonspecific distress scales, and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHO-DAS). An enriched convenience sample of 155 respondents was administered all screening scales followed by the 12-month Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). We defined SMI as any 12-month DSM-IV disorder, other than a substance use disorder, with a GAF score of less than 60.
All screening scales were significantly related to SMI. However, neither the CIDI-SF nor the WHO-DAS improved prediction significantly over the K10 or K6 scales. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of SMI was 0.854 for K10 and 0.865 for K6. The most efficient screening scale, K6, had a sensitivity (SE) of 0.36 (0.08) and a specificity of 0.96 (0.02) in predicting SMI.
The brevity and accuracy of the K6 and K10 scales make them attractive screens for SMI. Routine inclusion of either scale in clinical studies would create an important, and heretofore missing, crosswalk between community and clinical epidemiology.
Archives of General Psychiatry 03/2003; 60(2):184-9. · 12.02 Impact Factor
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Several methodological barriers impede discovery of early illness pathways in schizophrenia, including small samples, elongated study periods, and failure to integrate procedures and data across prodromal and first episode projects. A compounding factor is the tendency for single-site studies to focus narrowly on schizophrenia risk factors, rather than exploring vulnerability mechanisms that may cut across DSM-IV boundaries. To address these concerns, we discuss the merits of an integrated multisite approach to research that promotes large-scale investigation into the earliest phases of serious mental illness. The distinctive characteristics of this collaborative approach to early serious mental illness research could include (1) subject recruitment across several sites; (2) a broad diagnostic focus; (3) a core clinical and neuroscience assessment protocol; (4) longitudinal evaluation of subjects through a range of outcomes; and (5) an iterative approach to psychopathology research. This model represents a method for exploring prodromal phenotypes, for discovering causal risk mechanisms, and for investigating the biological and environmental interactions that define the early course of several disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar illness, and borderline personality disorder. This strategy could speed discovery of clinical tools most relevant to the earliest stages of serious mental illness; i.e., better methods of screening, diagnosing, and treating mental disorders before symptoms and impairments solidify into chronic disabilities.
Schizophrenia Bulletin 02/2003; 29(4):737-45. · 8.80 Impact Factor
