Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-9-2026

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Business Administration

First Advisor

Kaustuv Bhattacharya

Second Advisor

John Bentley

Third Advisor

John Samonds

Relational Format

Disertation/Thesis

Abstract

Mental illness affects millions of U.S. adults, yet many do not receive treatment. Among those with mental health conditions, individuals experiencing suicidal ideation represent a particularly high-risk subgroup for whom access to care is critical. Despite growing recognition of cost-related barriers as a driver of unmet mental health needs, no prior study has examined their association with mental health care utilization specifically among individuals with suicidal ideation. This thesis aimed to describe the prevalence of cost-related barriers and examine their association with mental health service utilization in this population. This cross-sectional study used data from the All of Us Research Program (n = 848). Cost-related barriers were measured via self-report; utilization was captured through electronic health records. Adjusted analyses used generalized linear models with a poisson distribution, controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, employment, education, and income. One in four participants (25.2%) reported a cost-related barrier. Those with barriers had significantly fewer mental health visits than those without (adjusted IRR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.45–0.92). These findings underscore the need for financial hardship screening, patient navigation support, and value-based insurance design reforms to improve care access in this high-risk population.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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