Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study is to examine unmet health care needs among midlife women (ages 50-64 years) in the United States by level of psychological distress. Method: Using data for a nationally representative sample of midlife women (N = 8,838) from the 2015-2016 National Health Interview Survey, we estimated odds ratios of reasons for delayed care and types of care foregone by level of psychological distress—none, moderate (moderate psychological distress [MPD], and severe (severe psychological distress [SPD]). Findings: More than one in five midlife women had MPD (15.3%) or SPD (5.2%). Women with MPD or SPD had 2 to 5 times higher odds of delayed and 2 to 20 times higher odds of foregone care. Conclusions: Midlife women with psychological distress have poorer health than those with no distress, yet they are less likely to get needed health care. There is a missed window of opportunity to address mental health needs and manage comorbid chronic conditions to facilitate healthy aging.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 317-327 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Aging and Health |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 5-6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 8 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota (P2C HD041023), funded through a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
Keywords
- access to care
- mental health
- midlife
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural