Poor Mental Health Among Adults measures the percentage of residents who report experiencing frequent mental distress—typically defined as 14 or more days of poor mental health in the past month. This estimate comes from a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and the CDC Foundation (CDCF), which models community-level mental health burden using national survey data and local demographic characteristics. Because mental health is closely tied to factors such as economic stress, social isolation, trauma exposure, and access to care, this indicator helps communities identify where supports like counseling, crisis intervention, and social connection programs are most needed. Tracking trends over time also helps local leaders understand how populations are coping with broader pressures—from economic shocks to public health emergencies—and evaluate whether investments in mental health services are reducing distress.

Why Does this Matter?

1. Poor mental health is tightly linked to chronic disease and early morbidity

• Adults reporting frequent poor mental health days have substantially higher odds of obesity, diabetes, asthma, COPD, arthritis, kidney disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer, with clear dose–response patterns: more days of distress are associated with more chronic disease.¹

2. Mental health reflects neighborhood and social conditions

• Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage—measured by poverty, public assistance, and housing conditions—is associated with higher depressive symptoms. At a broader scale, social determinants such as poverty, discrimination, housing, food security, and access to care are now recognized as major drivers of population mental health and mental disorders, and key levers for prevention.²

3. Poor mental health carries a very high economic cost for cities and regions

• Mental disorders are estimated to cost trillions of dollars globally in direct medical spending and lost productivity, with indirect costs (reduced employment, absenteeism, presenteeism, premature mortality) far exceeding treatment costs.³ Tracking adult poor mental health helps cities like Jacksonville understand not only a key health equity challenge, but also a significant constraint on workforce participation and long-term economic growth.⁴

1.  Cree, R. A., Okoro, C. A., Zack, M. M., & Carbone, E. (2020). Frequent mental distress among adults, by disability status, disability type, and selected characteristics—United States, 2018. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(36), 1238–1243. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6936a2 
2. Kirkbride, J. B., Anglin, D. M., Colman, I., Dykxhoorn, J., Jones, P. B., Patalay, P., Pitman, A., Soneson, E., Steare, T., Wright, T., & Griffiths, S. L. (2024). The social determinants of mental health and disorder: Evidence, prevention and recommendations. World Psychiatry, 23(1), 58–90. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21160
3. Trautmann, S., Rehm, J., & Wittchen, H. U. (2016). The economic costs of mental disorders: Do our societies react appropriately to the burden of mental disorders? EMBO Reports, 17(9), 1245–1249. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201642951
4. Greenberg, P., Chitnis, A., Louie, D., Suthoff, E., Chen, S.-Y., Maitland, J., Gagnon-Sanschagrin, P., Fournier, A.-A., & Kessler, R. C. (2023). The economic burden of adults with major depressive disorder in the United States (2019). Advances in Therapy, 40(10), 4460–4479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12325-023-02622-x