141st APHA Annual Meeting

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283184
Mental health and substance use among US adults: An analysis of 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey

Monday, November 4, 2013

Soumyadeep Mukherjee, MBBS, DPH, PhD student , Dept. of Epidemiology, Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL
BACKGROUND: The mental health effects of tobacco and alcohol use have been evaluated far less frequently compared to their effects on physical health. This study explores the relationship of using these substances and having poor mental health. METHODS: This study used the entire 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) dataset collected from adults aged 18 years or more in United States. Chi-Square tests, univariate and multivariable logistic regressions were done to look at the associations. RESULTS: 155,865(30.9%) of the 504408 adults reported that their mental health was not good for 1 or more days in the previous month. For 26974 (5.35% of the sample)adults,it was not good the entire month. Current everyday smokers (Adjusted Odds Ratio[AOR]: 1.43; 95% Confidence Intervals [CI] : 1.31, 1.57), occasional smokers (AOR:1.30; 95% CI: 1.15, 1.48), binge drinkers (AOR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.23), those who lived with a problem drinker (AOR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.44, 1.63) or a drug abuser (AOR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.21, 1.48) had higher odds of having poor mental health after adjusting for all other factors. Some significant socio-demographic predictors were being female (AOR: 1.70; 95% CI: 1.61, 1.80), never married (AOR: 1.30; 95%CI: 1.20, 1.41), divorced, widowed or separated (AOR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.28, 1.47), being out of work for more than a year (AOR: 1.86; 95% CI: 1.59, 2.19). CONCLUSION: Behaviors like substance abuse can predict poor mental health, and vice versa. Public health interventions to address them simultaneously might be useful.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the prevalence of poor mental health among adults in United States. Identify the correlates of being in poor mental health. Describe the analysis of a national dataset.

Keywords: Mental Health, Binge Drinking

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Public Health Student for nearly four years. I have considerable experience of analysing data from databases. Behavioral epidemiology, mental health, substance abuse, behavioral aspects of chronic diseases, HIV/AIDS are some of my special interests.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.