Table 1.

Study Variables

Type of Variable	Name of Variable	Variable Description and Construction
Dependent variable	Primary care vs mental health specialty mental health services	PCP mental health services defined as receiving mental health services from a PCP but not from an MHS in the last 6 months.
Independent variables	“Get over it naturally”	Acceptability of “Wait and get over it naturally” rated on a 4-point Likert scale. A “not sure” was also included. Indicator variables constructed for each rating level for each of the attitude variables.
	Antidepressant medication	Acceptability of “Use antidepressant drugs” rated.
	Individual counseling	Acceptability “Seek one-on-one counseling from a mental health specialist” rated.
	Group counseling	Acceptability of “Group counseling with 6 or more patients led by a mental health professional” rated.
Demographic characteristics	Age	Chronological age and age categories in bivariate analysis
	Gender	Male vs female
	Ethnicity	White vs all other ethnic groups
Socioeconomic characteristics	Marital status	Married vs unmarried
	Education	Patient report of number years of school completed
		Total years of education. A separate variable was constructed for levels of education for the bivariate analysis.
	Total household income	Total income from all household members
	Employment status	Any income from employment in past year
	Unemployment/disability status	Any income from unemployment or disability in the past year
Illness factors	CES-D score	Modified Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale score to assess depression severity
	SF-36 Mental and Physical Component Scores	Used to assess functional status
	Number of chronic conditions	Total number of chronic medical conditions from a list of 14
Social/behavioral factors	Total social support	Medical Outcomes Social Support Scale total score
	Physical social support	Medical Outcomes Social Support Scale physical support scale
	Adverse life events	Total number of adverse events with negative impact
Access to care	Insurance status	Yes or no
	Mean out-of-pocket Costs or MHS and PCP visits	(Total out of pocket costs in sector of care)/(total number of visits in that sector) = out of pocket costs for PCP or MHS sectors
		Outliers above $100/visit were eliminated
Health care utilization	Travel time to PCP or MHS	(Travel time) + (waiting time) for type of provider = total travel/wait time for each type of provider
	Total mental health visits	(PCP mental health visits) + (MHS mental health visits) = total
		Mental health visits in last 6 months
	Total primary care visits	Number of visits to PCP for all purposes in last 6 months
	Medication treatment	Medication treatment for depression or anxiety in the last 6 months

CES-D, Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale; SF-36, short form 36; MHS, mental health specialist; PCP, primary care physician.