Leading health experts agree that mental and physical health have a marked impact on each other and cannot be viewed separately. (1) Because good mental health is difficult to define (even though specific mental conditions may be identifiable), the Report Card uses an indicator that reflects women’s own sense of mental well-being by tracking reports of the average number of days during the past 30 days that their mental health was "not good."
What is that average number of days in the past 30 that women's mental health was "not good"?
Research did not uncover a standard benchmark about the acceptable number of "not good" mental health days, so the states are ranked and not graded on this indicator.
Data Source: Days Mental Health Was "Not Good" in Past 30 Days, 2005
EXPLANATION:
This measure includes the mean number of days during the past 30 days that women age 18 and older in the non-institutionalized civilian population report that their mental health was "not good."
SOURCE:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, "Health-Related Quality of Life," available at http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/HRQOL/, (electronic database of annual trend data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data (BRFSS), 2004, available at http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss/index.asp, for selected health-related quality of life measures). The national number is the median of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.