Self-Rating Mental Health as ‘Good’ Predicts Positive Future Mental Health

Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, Sirry Alang of Lehigh University and her co-authors, Donna D. McAlpine of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Ellen McCreedy of Brown University, sampled people who met the criteria for having a mental health problem and examined differences between those who do and do not rate their own mental health as poor.

After examining whether self -rated mental health predicts later outcomes among persons with a mental health problem, they estimated the impact of self-rated mental health on later mental health for persons with a mental health problem who did not receive treatment.

Published this month in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, the authors found that over 60% of people who screen positive for either depression or serious psychological distress rate their mental health as good.

However, the findings also showed that those who rated their mental health positively were significantly less likely to meet criteria for depression or serious psychological distress at follow-up one year later compared to those who rated their mental health more negatively, even if they did not receive treatment for a mental health problem.