Disparities in Mental Health Across Counties in North Carolina

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a significant causal relationship between economic factors and mental health conditions. In recent years, mental health conditions have increased in the population, and people of all ages have reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. In this paper, using data available from all 100 counties in North Carolina, I analyze the relationship between economic factors and mental health conditions. I run simple linear regression to determine the direction of the relationships and then run multiple linear regression to find the factors that are significantly correlated with anxiety/depression ER visits. I find that there is a statistically significant relationship between median income as well as high school graduation rate with anxiety and depression ER visits. Both factors are potentially contributing to the mental health conditions present in people living in North Carolina.