Abstract
During the first quarter of 1998, the Texas Department of Health and the Iowa Department of Public Health notified CDC of three fatal cases of varicella (chickenpox) that occurred in children during 1997. All three children were unvaccinated. Two children contracted chickenpox from unvaccinated siblings, and the mode of exposure was unknown for the third. This report summarizes these cases and indicates that varicella-related deaths continue to occur among children in the United States despite the availability of vaccine and recommendations for its use in all susceptible children.
Highlights
Of persons have some recent disability from a diagnosable mental illness, and up to 24% of adults have experienced a mental disorder during the preceding year
Information is limited about the overall prevalence of general mental distress, which can be associated with the incidence and prevalence of specific mental illnesses and conditions
Questions,4 including the following general mental health question: “ thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?” Persons who reported that their mental health was not good for $14 of the preceding 30 days were defined as having frequent mental distress (FMD)
Summary
Of persons have some recent disability from a diagnosable mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia, phobias, depression, and anxiety disorders), and up to 24% of adults have experienced a mental disorder during the preceding year. In 1997, the estimated cost of mental illness exceeded $150 billion for treatment, social services, disability payments, lost productivity, and premature mortality. information is limited about the overall prevalence of general mental distress, which can be associated with the incidence and prevalence of specific mental illnesses and conditions. This report describes differences in the prevalence of self-reported frequent mental distress (FMD) for noninstitutionalized adults in the United States for specific demographic groups and by state and age-sex group using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance. From the CDC about the prevalence of mental illness are limited because only small proportions of adults with treatable conditions seek professional help; for example, only 34.2% of nonrural, noninstitutionalized persons aged 18-54 years with major depressive disorders sought help in 1992, and only 14.3% of adults with personal and emotional problems sought help in 1993.2 The BRFSS data in this report, based on a 99% response rate to the one mental health question in the survey, indicate that respondents’ objections to a question about mental health were minimal and identified differences in self-reported FMD between states and between age and sex groups in each state. FMD may have a high prevalence of diagnosable mental illness, the proportion cannot be estimated accurately without a population study that includes both the BRFSS measure and a clinical psychiatric examination This analysis has at least four limitations. The large amount of BRFSS data that state health agencies are collecting about recent mental health and related HRQOL items (.500,000 adults have been surveyed through 1997) gives public health planners a valuable resource of population data. This information can help set population health goals and objectives and help monitor the performance of health programs over time. The data reported here suggest that public health strategies are needed— for younger adults, women, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaskan Natives, and for persons who reported the loss of a marital partner, are not working, or have limited socioeconomic resources—to ensure that community health objectives associated with mental health can be met (e.g., increasing adult access to community mental health services and increasing the proportion of persons with clinically significant mental distress who obtain treatment)
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