Citation

Rao AR, Rao S, Chhabra R. Community Ment. Health J. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10597-021-00788-8

PMID

33591481

Abstract

CONTEXT: Many governments have publicly released healthcare data, which can be mined for insights about disease conditions, and their impact on society.

METHODS: We present a big-data analytics approach to investigate data in the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) consisting of 20 million patient records.

FINDINGS: Whereas the age group 30-48 years exhibited an 18% decline in mental health (MH) disorders from 2009 to 2016, the age group 0-17 years showed a 5.4% increase. MH issues amongst the age group 0-17 years comprise a significant expenditure in New York State. Within this age group, we find a higher prevalence of MH disorders in females and minority populations. Westchester County has seen a 32% increase in incidences and a 41% increase in costs.

CONCLUSIONS: Our approach is scalable to data from multiple government agencies and provides an independent perspective on health care issues, which can prove valuable to policy and decision-makers.

Language: en

Keywords

Mental health; Big data analytics