U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the proportion of children with mental health problems who get treatment — MHMD‑03 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), CDC/NCHS

Baseline: 70.7 percent of children aged 4 to 17 years with mental health problems received treatment in 2019

Target: 79.3 percent

Numerator
Number of children aged 4 to 17 years with mental health problems receiving 1 or more forms of treatment.
Denominator
Number of children aged 4 to 17 years with mental health problems.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.20.
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen’s h effect size of 0.2. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline. The Healthy People 2030 Workgroup Subject Matter Experts viewed this as an ambitious yet achievable target due to national efforts underway to improve access to treatment for children with mental health problems.

Methodology

Methodology notes

Children are considered to have received treatment based on the numerator questions if there is: 1) a "yes" response to the mental health specialist question, 2) a "yes" response to both the general doctor question and follow-up question regarding emotional or behavioral problems or 3) a "yes" response to both the Special Educational or Early Intervention Services question and follow-up question regarding emotional or behavioral problems. Children are considered to have had mental health problems if the response to the denominator question is Yes, definite difficulties or Yes, severe difficulties. For all questions, the parent responds as a proxy for the child.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.
Revision History
Revised. 

In 2022, due to the 2019 NHIS redesign and survey question changes, the baseline was revised from 73.3% in 2018 to 70.7% in 2019. The target setting method was revised from projection to percentage improvement point. The target was revised from 82.4% to 79.3%. The questions for the prior decade are available under the Data Details section for MHMD-6 on the Healthy People 2020 archived website.