Prevalence, Treatment, and Control of Depressive Symptoms in the United States: Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2005–2008

Ruth S. Shim, MD, MPH; Peter Baltrus, PhD; Jiali Ye, PhD; George Rust, MD, MPH

J Am Board Fam Med. 2011;24(1):33-38.

Conclusion

Despite these limitations, these nationally representative data provide a cross-sectional US population estimate of the prevalence of mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe depressive symptoms. They also demonstrate that a substantial proportion of persons with symptoms of depression in the United States remain untreated or undertreated. The burden of illness represented by depression care, as well as new evidence suggesting that care and outcomes systematically can be improved, suggest important opportunities for optimizing the treatment of depression in primary care and community health settings as a means of improving overall population health.

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Funding
This study was funded by the Office of Minority Health grant MPCMP101054-01-00, PI, (GR) and the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute grant 5 UL 1 RR025008.

Conflict of interest
none declared.

Cite this: Prevalence, Treatment, and Control of Depressive Symptoms in the United States: Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2005–2008 - Medscape - Jan 01, 2011.

Table 1. Population with Mild, Moderate, Moderately Severe, and Severe Depressive Symptoms from Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 Scores, by Age and Sex^*
	Depressive Symptoms
	Mild(PHQ-9 score = 5–9)	Moderate(PHQ-9 score = 10–14)	Moderately Severe(PHQ-9 score = 15–19)	Severe(PHQ-9 score ≥20)	Total (Any Severity)(PHQ-9 score ≥5)
Men
Age (yr)
18–54	435 (13.31)	142 (3.48)	38 (1.04)	16 (0.39)	631 (18.23)
≥55	208 (10.45)	72 (3.65)	35 (1.44)	6 (0.20)	321 (15.73)
All ages	643 (12.52)	214 (3.52)	73 (1.15)	22 (0.34)	952 (17.53)
Women
Age (yr)
18–54	586 (16.93)	242 (6.24)	103 (2.68)	37 (0.90)	968 (26.75)
≥55	335 (17.06)	89 (3.77)	40 (1.56)	15 (0.44)	479 (22.82)
All ages	921 (16.97)	331 (5.47)	143 (2.33)	52 (0.75)	1447 (25.52)

Values provided as n (%).
^* Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005 to 2008.

Table 2. Population Receiving Pharmacologic or Behavioral Depression Treatment, by Depressive Symptoms^*
	Depressive Symptoms
	Moderate(PHQ-9 score = 10–14)	Moderately Severe(PHQ-9 score = 15–19)	Severe(PHQ-9 score ≥20)	Moderately Severe and Severe (PHQ-9 score ≥ 15)
Pharmacologic treatment only	16.9 (13.1–21.5)	17.9 (13.0–24.1)	14.4 (6.5–28.9)	17.0 (12.7–22.6)
Mental health professional only	13.3 (9.3–18.9)	15.6 (9.9–23.7)	23.9 (13.9–37.9)	17.6 (12.0–25.1)
Both pharmacologic treatment and mental health professional	11.1 (7.9–15.5)	11.6 (8.1–16.4)	24.8 (12.1–44.0)	14.8 (10.8–19.9)
Neither pharmacologic treatment nor mental health professional	58.8 (51.9–60.6)	54.9 (47.3–62.2)	36.9 (24.8–51.0)	50.6 (43.8–57.4)

Values provided as % (95% CI).
^* Based on Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 scores. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005 to 2008.

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