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Geographic variation in mental health care disparities among racially/ethnically diverse adults with psychiatric disorders

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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of this paper is to examine geographic variation in unmet need for mental health care among racially/ethnically diverse adults with psychiatric disorders in the US.

Methods

Drawn from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES; 2001–2003), adults with any past year psychiatric disorder diagnosis (n = 3211) from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds were selected for analyses. Using weighted data, descriptive analyses and logistic regression analyses were conducted.

Results

Two-thirds of the total sample had unmet mental health care need, which differed significantly by race/ethnicity (p < .001). Logistic regression analyses show regional variation of the effect of race/ethnicity in unmet need: after adjusting for covariates, Latinos in the South, Blacks and Latinos in the Midwest, and Latinos and Asians in the West had higher unmet need than non-Hispanic Whites, whereas no significant racial/ethnic effects were found in the Northeast.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that geographic region plays an important role in the sufficient use of mental health services among racial/ethnic minorities. Further research should elucidate reasons for geographic disparities in mental health care among racial/ethnic minority adults to reduce disparities.

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Acknowledgements

Research reported in this publication is supported by the National Institute on Aging (K01AG045342), the National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH098025), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01HS021486-01A1). Funding for the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES) was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (U01-MH60220, U01-MH57716, U01-MH062209, and U01-MH62207). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea

    Giyeon Kim

  2. Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Natalie Dautovich

  3. Alabama Research Institute on Aging, Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    Katy-Lauren Ford & Patricia Parmelee

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    Daniel E. Jimenez

  5. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Benjamin Cook

  6. Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Benjamin Cook

  7. Geriatrics and Extended Care Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA

    Richard M. Allman

Authors
  1. Giyeon Kim
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  2. Natalie Dautovich
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  3. Katy-Lauren Ford
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  4. Daniel E. Jimenez
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  5. Benjamin Cook
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  6. Richard M. Allman
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  7. Patricia Parmelee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giyeon Kim.

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Ethical standards

The manuscript does not contain clinical studies or patient data. The manuscript uses a publicly available secondary data set that has been pre-approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Kim, G., Dautovich, N., Ford, KL. et al. Geographic variation in mental health care disparities among racially/ethnically diverse adults with psychiatric disorders. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 52, 939–948 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1401-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1401-1

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