Table 1.

Descriptive Characteristics, by Study Sample, of Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), 1998–2011a

	Full MEPS Sample (N = 121,611)	MEPS‐NHIS Linked Sample: No Psychological Distress (K6 < 5) (N = 36,872)	MEPS‐NHIS Linked Sample: Moderate or Severe Psychological Distress (K6 ≥ 5) (N = 12,818)
Age (mean)	38.5	39.1	40.4
Gender
Male	47.2	45.3	36.4
Female	52.8	54.7	63.6
Race/ethnicity
Non‐Hispanic white	56.8	58.1	63.2
Non‐Hispanic black	15.6	16.9	16.1
Non‐Hispanic Asian	4.4	3.8	2.5
Non‐Hispanic other/multiple races	1.8	1.8	2.8
Hispanic	21.3	19.3	15.5
Education
0–11 years	23.9	21.1	25.6
12 years	37.2	35.7	38.4
≥13 years	38.9	43.2	36.0
Married	46.3	41.7	30.9
Children in household	44.2	44.9	39.5
Urban	80.7	80.4	78.8
Any health insuranceb	70.2	71.1	72.2
Any Medicaid coverageb	14.2	13.0	23.7
Any private health insuranceb	55.1	58.1	45.3
Any mental health use	12.0	9.2	28.3
Any inpatient mental health use	0.3	0.2	0.9
Any ambulatory mental health use	6.6	4.8	16.8
Any prescription mental health use	10.3	7.6	25.3
Any emergency department mental health use	0.5	0.3	1.3
Any mental health out‐of‐pocket spending	9.6	7.1	23.0
Out‐of‐pocket spending on mental health services (mean)	$28.68	$15.33	$86.52

^aValues are in percentages unless otherwise noted.

^bSample sizes for the insurance outcomes are 120,970 for the full sample, 36,815 for the K6 < 5 sample, and 12,799 for the K6 ≥ 5 sample.