Figure 13.2. Percent of adults aged 18 years and over who experienced serious psychological distress during the past 30 days, by age group and sex: United States, January - June 2002

NOTES: Six psychological distress questions are included in the Sample Adult Core component.  These questions ask how often a respondent experienced symptoms of psychological distress during the past 30 days.  The response codes (0-4) of the six items for each person are summed to yield a scale with a 0-24 range.  A value of 13 or more for this scale is used here to define serious psychological distress (1).

DATA SOURCE: Based on data collected from January through June in the Sample Adult Core component of the 2002 National Health Interview Survey.

For both sexes combined, persons aged 45-64 years were most likely to experience serious psychological distress during the past 30 days, followed by persons aged 18-44 years.

For age groups 18-44 years and 45-64 years, women were more likely than men to experience serious psychological distress during the past 30 days.  A similar pattern was found for those aged 65 years and over but was not statistically significant.

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