Lower Self-rated Mental Health Status is Associated with Higher Numbers of Doctor Visits

• In Event: 343 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Subjective Health Assessment

Abstract

This study proposes that poorer ratings of mental health are associated with greater numbers of doctor visits. Data was obtained from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP): Wave 2. This longitudinal study involved an in-person questionnaire given between August 2010 and May 2011 to a sample of 3,377 participants born between 1920 and 1947, all of whom were drawn from the population using a national household screening method adopted from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). OLS regression analyses on Wave 2 data determined that self-rated mental health was negatively associated with the number of times an individual saw a doctor in the last 12 months for all models of analysis. The full model (Model 4, Table 1) helps to explain 14.61% of the variability in the number of doctor visits in the past year due to self-rated mental health status. Individuals with fair to excellent self-rated mental health visited their doctors an average of 3.4 visits less than those with poor self-rated mental health at statistical significance p<0.01. These results confirm that self-rated mental health is an important factor in health care utilization.

Author

• Katrina Branecky, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill