More Kids Are Discussing Mental Health During Regular Doctor Visits, Study Says

India, May 19 -- A new study by researchers from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston University, Boston Medical Center, UMass Chan Medical School, and Brown University found that mental health concerns are being discussed more often during children's regular doctor visits.

For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, researchers looked at health insurance records for nearly all insured children in Massachusetts between ages 1 and 18 from 2014 to 2023, covering about 1.8 million children over 10 years.

The study found that primary care visits involving a mental health diagnosis increased from about 6 visits per 100 children in 2014 to almost 10 visits per 100 children in 2023. Anxiety-related visits showed the biggest increase,...