Current Depression by Health Region, Adults Aged 18+, New Mexico, 2016
Indicator Report Data View Options
Why Is This Important?
Depression is one of the most prevalent and treatable mental disorders. Major depression is usually associated with co-morbid mental disorders, such as anxiety and substance use disorders, and impairment of a person's ability to function in work, home, relationship, and social roles. Depression is also a risk factor for suicide and attempted suicide. In addition, depressive disorders have been associated with an increased prevalence of chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, asthma, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
Current Depression by Health Region, Adults Aged 18+, New Mexico, 2016
Definition
Percentage of NM residents 18 years or older who screened positive for current depression in the two weeks prior to taking a phone survey. The Anxiety and Depression Module, included as a state-added module of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 2011 and 2016, comprises the first eight questions from the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8), an instrument that can establish a provisional depressive disorder diagnosis using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria. These eight questions ask how many days over the past two weeks the respondents experienced each of the eight symptoms. The number of days during which symptoms were reported were converted to points; the number of points were then summed across the 8 questions to determine the severity of depressive symptoms. A cut-off score of 10 points or more was used to define current depression.
Data Source
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, together with New Mexico Department of Health, Injury and Behavioral Epidemiology Bureau.(https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/ibeb/brfss/)
How the Measure is Calculated
| Numerator: | Number of survey respondents who reported a total of 10 depressive symptom-days or more within the two weeks prior to survey. |
| Denominator: | Number of survey respondents excluding those with missing, "Don't know/Not sure," and "Refused" responses. |
Data Issues
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is an ongoing survey of adults about health-related behaviors, health conditions, and preventive services. Data are collected in all 50 states, D.C., and U.S. territories. The survey is conducted using scientific telephone survey methods for landline and cellular phones (with cellular since 2011). The landline phone portion of the survey excludes adults living in group quarters such as college dormitories, nursing homes, military barracks, and prisons. The cellular phone portion of the survey includes adult students living in college dormitories but excludes other group quarters. Beginning with 2011, the BRFSS updated its surveillance methods by adding in calls to cell phones and changing its weighting methods. These changes improve BRFSS' ability to take into account the increasing proportion of U.S. adults using only cellular telephones. Because of these changes, the data from years prior to 2011 are not directly comparable to data from 2011 and later. Please see the [[a href="/nmibis-view/docs/Query/BRFSS/BRFSS_fact_sheet_Aug2012.pdf BRFSS Method Change Factsheet]]. Responses have been weighted to reflect the New Mexico adult population by age, sex, ethnicity, geographic region, marital status, education level, home ownership and type of phone. The "missing" and "don't know" responses are not included when calculating a percentage.Health Topic Pages Related to: Mental Health - Adult Depression
Community Health Resources and Links
- Healthy People 2030 Website
- The Guide to Community Preventive Services
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
- County Health Rankings
- Kaiser Family Foundation's StateHealthFacts
Medical literature can be queried at the PubMed website.