{"id":41112,"date":"2025-08-01T01:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=41112"},"modified":"2026-01-30T07:55:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:55:53","slug":"depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e\/","title":{"rendered":"Depression Screening and Follow-Up for Adolescents and Adults (DSF-E)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The percentage of persons 12 years of age and older who were screened for clinical depression using a standardized instrument and, if screened positive, received follow-up care.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Depression Screening. The percentage of persons who were screened for clinical depression using a standardized instrument.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Follow-Up on Positive Screen. The percentage of persons who received follow-up care within 30 days of a positive depression screen finding.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why It Matters?<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Depressive disorders are common mental disorders that occur in people of all ages. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the second leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting an estimated 120 million people <sup><a href=\"#ref-1\">1<\/a><\/sup>. The lifelong prevalence is estimated to range from 10%\u201315% <sup><a href=\"#ref-2\">2<\/a><\/sup>. In the United States, the 12\u2010month prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) is 10.4%, with a lifetime prevalence of 20.6% <sup><a href=\"#ref-3\">3<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">In adolescents, depression can also result in serious long-term morbidities such as generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder, or lead to engagement in risky behaviors such as substance use <sup><a href=\"#ref-4\">4<\/a><\/sup>. Adolescent-onset depression increases the risk of attempted suicide five-fold in comparison with nondepressed adolescents <sup><a href=\"#ref-5\">5<\/a><\/sup>. Most adolescents who commit suicide, the third leading cause of death among 15\u201324 year-olds, have a history of depression <sup><a href=\"#ref-5\">5<\/a><\/sup>. The onset of depression prior to adulthood is often associated with greater prevalence and severity in adulthood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Depression has a large effect on health care costs and on productivity. Adolescents with depression have higher medical expenditures, including those related to general and mental health care, than adolescents without depression <sup><a href=\"#ref-5\">5<\/a><\/sup>. Regarding work functionality, minor levels of depression symptoms were associated with decreases in overall work production <sup><a href=\"#ref-5\">5<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">A survey study found that major depressive disorder severity is significantly associated with increased treatment usage and costs, unemployment, disability and reduced work performance <sup><a href=\"#ref-6\">6<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Studies have found that patient outcomes improve when there is collaboration between a primary care provider, case manager and a mental health specialist to screen for depression, monitor symptoms, provide treatment and refer to specialty care as needed <sup><a href=\"#ref-7\">7<\/a><\/sup> <sup><a href=\"#ref-8\">8<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><i>Adapted with financial support from the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS).<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of persons 12 years of age and older who were screened for clinical depression using a standardized instrument and, if screened positive, received follow-up care.\u00a0 Depression Screening. The percentage of persons who were screened for clinical depression using a standardized instrument. Follow-Up on Positive Screen. The percentage of persons who received follow-up care [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41112","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Depression Screening and Follow-Up for Adolescents and Adults (DSF-E) - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Assesses children who turned 15 months old during the measurement year and had 0\u20136 well-child visits with a primary care physician during their first 15 months of life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Depression Screening and Follow-Up for Adolescents and Adults (DSF-E) - NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Assesses children who turned 15 months old during the measurement year and had 0\u20136 well-child visits with a primary care physician during their first 15 months of life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T12:55:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NCQA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e\/\",\"name\":\"Depression Screening and Follow-Up for Adolescents and Adults (DSF-E) - NCQA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T05:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T12:55:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"Assesses children who turned 15 months old during the measurement year and had 0\u20136 well-child visits with a primary care physician during their first 15 months of life.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/depression-screening-and-follow-up-for-adolescents-and-adults-dsf-e\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report Cards\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Health Plans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"State of Health Care Quality Report\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Depression Screening and Follow-Up for Adolescents and Adults (DSF-E)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"description\":\"Measuring quality. 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