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. 1997 Jul;87(7):1136–1143. doi: 10.2105/ajph.87.7.1136

The use of outpatient mental health services in the United States and Ontario: the impact of mental morbidity and perceived need for care.

S J Katz 1, R C Kessler 1, R G Frank 1, P Leaf 1, E Lin 1, M Edlund 1
PMCID: PMC1380887  PMID: 9240103

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study compared the associations of individual mental health disorders, self-rated mental health, disability, and perceived need for care with the use of outpatient mental health services in the United States and the Canadian province of Ontario. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was employed. Data came from the 1990 US National Comorbidity Survey and the 1990 Mental Health Supplement to the Ontario Health Survey. RESULTS: The odds of receiving any medical or psychiatric specialty services were as follows: for persons with any affective disorder, 3.1 in the United States vs 11.0 in Ontario; for persons with fair or poor self-rated mental health, 2.7 in the United States vs 5.0 in Ontario; for persons with mental health-related disability. 3.0 in the United States vs 1.5 in Ontario. When perceived need was controlled for, most of the between country differences in use disappeared. CONCLUSIONS: The higher use of mental health services in the United States than in Ontario is mostly explained by the combination of a higher prevalence of mental morbidity and a higher prevalence of perceived need for care among persons with low mental morbidity in the United States.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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