HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH IN NEW YORK CITY
Challenges to health, such as work-limiting health conditions and psychological distress, are tied to expe- riences of hardship and poverty, as they can limit one’s ability to secure income and can be costly. In this section, we examine the prevalence of health problems, which include poor self-rated health, work-limiting health conditions, and psychological distress across the city’s adult population.
Measuring Health Problems The Poverty Tracker asks New Yorkers to self-rate their health and if they have any work-limiting health conditions. Responses to these questions are used to measure health problems.
Work-limiting health condition
Serious psychological distress
Poor health
Health problems
Respondents answered “poor” when asked to rate their health on a five-point scale from excellent to poor.
Respondents indicated they had a work- limiting health condition when asked.
Having a work-limiting disability or self- reporting one’s health as “poor.”
Identified as having serious psychological distress according to the Kessler-6 scale. 13
Identified as having serious psychological distress according to the Kessler-6 scale.13
In 2022, roughly 1 in 4 adult New Yorkers faced a health problem, defined as reporting poor health or having a work-limiting health condition. In 2022, about a quarter (24%) of adult New Yorkers reported having a health problem, and a third (33%) faced either a health problem or serious psychological distress (see Figure 1.6). The notable increases in the share of New Yorkers experiencing either a health problem or symptoms of depression and anxiety (serious psychological distress) coincides with the end of policy expansions in 2021 and historic increases in inflation and the cost of living in 2022 – indicating that these experiences may be the consequence of, or may have been exacerbated by, increased strains on income and experiences of hardship. These experiences also put New Yorkers at an increased risk of poverty and hardship. We explore the overlap between experiences of poverty, hardship, health problems, and psychological distress in section 4 of the report.
13 See Kessler et al., “Short Screening Scales to Monitor Population Prevalences and Trends in Non-Specific Psychological Distress."
THE STATE OF POVERTY AND DISADVANTAGE IN NEW YORK CITY 17
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