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Mental Health Treatment Reported by US Workers before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: United States (2019–2020)

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a significant and unprecedented exacerbation of community mental health challenges. We compared the prevalence of mental health treatment (MHT) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among US workers. Self-reported MHT data (N = 30,680) were obtained from the Sample...

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Autores principales: Gu, Ja K., Charles, Luenda E., Allison, Penelope, Violanti, John M., Andrew, Michael E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9818999/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36612970
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010651
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author Gu, Ja K.
Charles, Luenda E.
Allison, Penelope
Violanti, John M.
Andrew, Michael E.
author_facet Gu, Ja K.
Charles, Luenda E.
Allison, Penelope
Violanti, John M.
Andrew, Michael E.
author_sort Gu, Ja K.
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a significant and unprecedented exacerbation of community mental health challenges. We compared the prevalence of mental health treatment (MHT) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among US workers. Self-reported MHT data (N = 30,680) were obtained from the Sample Adult data of the National Health Interview Survey (2019 and 2020). MHT was defined as having taken prescription medications for mental health issues or receiving counseling from a mental health professional in the past 12 months. We calculated age-adjusted prevalence estimates and employed t-tests to compare MHT in 2019 and 2020 using SAS-callable SUDAAN 11.0. The prevalence of MHT significantly increased from 16.3% in 2019 to 17.6% in 2020 (difference = 1.3, p = 0.030). The prevalence of taking prescription medications for mental health issues significantly increased in 2020 compared to 2019 (12.5% to 13.6%, difference = 1.1, p = 0.037). The prevalence of receiving counseling significantly increased but only among those who worked 30–49 h/week, difference = 1.2, p = 0.022. US workers, especially those with typical work hours, appeared to experience higher mental distress during the first year of the pandemic compared to the year prior to the pandemic period. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to address mental health issues in these workers.
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spelling pubmed-98189992023-01-07 Mental Health Treatment Reported by US Workers before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: United States (2019–2020) Gu, Ja K. Charles, Luenda E. Allison, Penelope Violanti, John M. Andrew, Michael E. Int J Environ Res Public Health Brief Report The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a significant and unprecedented exacerbation of community mental health challenges. We compared the prevalence of mental health treatment (MHT) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among US workers. Self-reported MHT data (N = 30,680) were obtained from the Sample Adult data of the National Health Interview Survey (2019 and 2020). MHT was defined as having taken prescription medications for mental health issues or receiving counseling from a mental health professional in the past 12 months. We calculated age-adjusted prevalence estimates and employed t-tests to compare MHT in 2019 and 2020 using SAS-callable SUDAAN 11.0. The prevalence of MHT significantly increased from 16.3% in 2019 to 17.6% in 2020 (difference = 1.3, p = 0.030). The prevalence of taking prescription medications for mental health issues significantly increased in 2020 compared to 2019 (12.5% to 13.6%, difference = 1.1, p = 0.037). The prevalence of receiving counseling significantly increased but only among those who worked 30–49 h/week, difference = 1.2, p = 0.022. US workers, especially those with typical work hours, appeared to experience higher mental distress during the first year of the pandemic compared to the year prior to the pandemic period. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to address mental health issues in these workers. MDPI 2022-12-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9818999/ /pubmed/36612970 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010651 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Brief Report
Gu, Ja K.
Charles, Luenda E.
Allison, Penelope
Violanti, John M.
Andrew, Michael E.
Mental Health Treatment Reported by US Workers before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: United States (2019–2020)
title Mental Health Treatment Reported by US Workers before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: United States (2019–2020)
title_full Mental Health Treatment Reported by US Workers before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: United States (2019–2020)
title_fullStr Mental Health Treatment Reported by US Workers before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: United States (2019–2020)
title_full_unstemmed Mental Health Treatment Reported by US Workers before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: United States (2019–2020)
title_short Mental Health Treatment Reported by US Workers before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: United States (2019–2020)
title_sort mental health treatment reported by us workers before and during the covid-19 pandemic: united states (2019–2020)
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9818999/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36612970
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010651
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