HRA Data Shows Up to a Third Experience Depression, but Only a Fraction Are Being Treated

Volume 2, February 2009
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Of the 900,000 unique individuals who took the HealthMedia® Succeed™ online health risk assessment (HRA) between 2000 and 2008, nearly 30 percent were suffering from or at risk for depression, however just over 8 percent of them sought treatment.

Succeed measures and quantifies productivity impairment, and identifies health risks by epidemiological need, stage of change, motivation, self-confidence, and barriers. It also evaluates health-related behaviors and health history and produces an individually tailored action plan around each participant’s top four health risks. NCQA HIP Certified through June 2010, Succeed integrates with electronic medical records (EMRs), claims, and biometric data.

The Succeed HRA uses a validated scale to assess symptoms of depression, and includes questions about current treatment for depression. Participants are then asked to indicate how often they experienced any of the symptoms in the past week. Analysis of the data indicated that a significantly low percentage of users that presented as depressed were actually getting treatment for depression. They also found that even mild depression had a significant effect on productivity in the workplace.

Data analysis of the 879,921 participants who answered the Succeed depression questions showed:

  • Only 8.2 percent (72,356) reported they were being treated for depression
  • Over 21 percent (186,569) said they felt depressed some or most of the time, but did not report that they were in treatment
  • 72 percent of those experiencing some level of depression were not getting treatment

Succeed also features a series of questions around productivity such as number of work hours a participant missed due to health-related issues (absenteeism), and the number of hours a participant was unable to perform while at work due to health-related issues (presenteeism). Succeed data showed that those respondents who were depressed and not receiving treatment had an average of 4.1 missed work days in the past 12 months due to health problems. This number was significantly higher than the 2.5 average days missed by people who were not depressed (p<.0001). Other productivity data shows:

  • Health-related absenteeism was 79 percent higher for people who were depressed and not receiving treatment compared to those who were not depressed (1.6 percent vs. 0.9 percent)
  • Health-related presenteeism was 127 percent higher for people who were depressed and not receiving treatment, compared to those who were not depressed (14.4 percent vs. 6.4 percent)
  • The overall productivity impairment was 120 percent higher for people who were depressed and not getting treatment, compared to those who were not depressed (15.5 percent vs. 7.1 percent).
  • Even those who reported being depressed 1-2 days a week showed twice the level of productivity impairment when compared to those who rarely felt depressed.

In addition, Succeed asks participants to rate how much health problems affected their ability to engage in regular daily activities other than work in the past four weeks. Data analysis showed that the health-related impact on daily activities was 118 percent higher for people who were depressed and not receiving treatment, compared to those who were not depressed (19.6 percent vs. 9 percent).

This data indicates that there is clearly an unmet need for effective, scalable, high-quality treatment solutions for depression. The HealthMedia® Connect™ participation and intelligent recruitment solution has the capability to identify and recruit HRA participants who are at risk for depression into an online depression intervention - HealthMedia® Overcoming™ Depression. Since 2007, more than 10,000 participants have taken the Overcoming Depression program — yet only 13.3 percent reported they were being treated for depression by a psychiatrist or health professional.

Data analysis of the 184 participants who answered the 180-day program evaluation showed:

  • 41 percent reduction in the average CES-D score (5.05 at baseline to 2.96 at 180 days)
  • 25 percent reduction in the average overall productivity impairment (29.02 percent at baseline to 21.74 percent at 180 days)
  • 22 percent reduction in the average health-related impairment in regular daily activities (3.30 at baseline to 2.59 at 180 days)
  • A savings of $3,640 per participant per year based on an average projected annual salary of $50,000