The study, led by Matthew M. Zack, M.D., M.P.H., of the division of adult and community health at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, was based on surveys conducted 1993-2001 and 2003-2006 conducted by the CDC. The surveys involved more than 2.4 million people and were conducted as part of the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

 

The participants were asked how many of the previous 30 days their mental health, including stress, depression and emotional problems, was “not good.” Those saying their mental health was not good at least 14 out of the previous 30 days had frequent mental distress.

 

The data showed that average frequent mental distress was 9.4 percent. Less stressed were people living in Hawaii (6.6 percent), South Dakota (6.7 percent), Washington D.C. (7.4 percent), Kansas, Nebraska and North Dakota (7.5 percent), Arizona (7.6 percent) and Iowa and Montana (7.7 percent).

 

Those who confronted themselves with more stress than the average were living in Kentucky (14.4 percent), West Virginia (11.2 percent), Nevada (10.9 percent), Alabama, Mississippi (10.8 percent) and Michigan (10.5 percent).

 

The study researchers concluded that, given the findings, authorities in most stressed regions in the US “should collaborate to identify and eliminate the specific preventable sources of this distress.”