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Current State of Health
Published in Traci Rose Rider, Margaret van Bakergem, Building for Well-Being, 2021
Traci Rose Rider, Margaret van Bakergem
In the United States, mental illness is tragically and unfortunately common – nearly one in five US adults live with a mental illness (51.5 million in 2019). Based on data captured from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the United States generally uses two categories to understand the severity of mental illness: Any mental illness (AMI) is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder varying in impact from no impairment to mild, moderate, and even severe impairment. Serious mental illness (SMI) is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. The difference between the two is the interference with life activities, but obviously, neither are good. For these data, mental illnesses include those that are diagnosable or have been diagnosed within the past year, but exclude developmental and substance use disorders. In 2019, it was found that 20.6% of all US adults (18+) showed evidence of AMI, while 5.2% were diagnosed with SMI. An example of additional mental health topics reported for adults include anxiety disorders, major depression, and suicide.
Food insecurity, mental health, and use of mental health services among nonelderly adults in the United States
Published in Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 2020
Patience A. Afulani, Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Dena Herman
In 2015, 15.8 million households in the United Stated (US)—12.7% of US households—were food-insecure at some time during the year, with five percent experiencing very low food security (FS).1 This indicates the existence of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake among adults and/or children due to lack of resources. In that same year, 9.8 million US adults aged 18 or older (4.2% of US adults) were estimated to have serious mental illness (SMI)—defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.2 The relationship between food insecurity (FI) and poor health status is well documented, especially for chronic health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.3,4 FI is also associated with high-risk behaviors such as alcohol use, smoking cigarettes, and substance abuse.5,6 Studies in the United States have shown that FI is related to poor mental health (MH).3,7–11 A growing number of studies globally have also shown strong associations between FI and mental health (MH).12–15 In particular, studies in Canada have shown higher odds of mood and anxiety disorders, depression, and suicidal ideation among adults in food-insecure households.15–18