Rising Mental Health Incidence Among Adolescents in Westchester, NY

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.