U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce the proportion of adults with disabilities who experience serious psychological distress — DH‑02 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), CDC/NCHS

Baseline: 22.0 percent of adults with disabilities aged 18 years and over experienced serious psychological distress in 2018

Target: 7.6 percent

Numerator
Number of adults with disabilities aged 18 years and over who experience serious psychological distress.
Denominator
Number of adults with disabilities aged 18 years and over.
Target-setting method
Minimal statistical significance
Target-setting method details
Minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline.
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. The standard error was used to calculate a target based on minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline. This method was used because the target reflects a conservative projection based on a steady improvement over the last decade. The Healthy People 2030 Workgroup Subject Matter Experts expected incremental progress over the next decade as there are numerous evidence-based interventions and practices to help achieve this target.

Methodology

Methodology notes

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is a household survey of children and adults. Through personal interviews, NHIS collects information on a broad range of health topics, including health insurance, doctor's office visits, physical activity and other health behaviors. The information collected is used to track the health status of U.S. populations, healthcare access, and progress toward achieving national health objectives. Conducted annually, NHIS is sponsored by the National Center for Health Statistics. An adult is considered to have symptoms of psychological distress if the adult or an adult proxy responds "yes" to "ALL of the time" or "MOST of the time" to any of the numerator questions for adults. The six adult questions reflect the Kessler 6 (K6) scale, which is used internationally to assess feelings of sadness, restlessness, hopelessness, nervousness, worthlessness, and the sense that everything is an effort. Positive responses increase the score. This scale has the sensitivity and specificity to effectively discriminate between cases and non-cases of mood disorders, but it cannot define which specific disorder (such as clinical depression, generalized anxiety disorder) that any given respondent to the survey may have. With total scores ranging from 0 to 24, a standard cutoff score of 13 or higher on the K6 has been used to identify persons with nonspecific serious psychological distress.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from Healthy People 2020 objective DH-18 in that objective DH-18 used the American Community Survey (ACS) disability questions to identify persons with disabilities while this objective uses the Washington Group short set of disability questions to identify persons with disabilities.