# Health care transition utilization and outcomes for youth with mental, behavioral, and developmental disorders

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2024 · $353,039

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Adolescents and young adults with mental, behavioral, or developmental disorders (MBDD) experience a peak
in risk for poor access to care and adverse mental health outcomes, including suicidality, during the transition
from pediatric- to adult-focused care. Despite the clear public health importance of this topic, little research
exists regarding how health care transition is associated with high care quality and improved mental health
outcomes, a deeper understanding of the scope of disparities in transition and downstream outcomes, and
evidence toward the potential role of health policy for improving access to timely health care transition in the
United States. This project proposes to provide new evidence using a novel dataset that links restricted use,
national data on health care utilization and mental health outcomes, and will be unprecedented both in terms
of its coverage and scope. Using this new dataset, we will examine the potential role for state and federal
mental health policy in affecting access to health care transition in terms of occurrence, timing, and gaps (Aim
1) using quasi-experimental techniques that take advantage of the staggered implementation of mental health
parity laws across states over time and the resulting variation in exposure to these policies. This will be the
first evaluation of these policies' impact on health care transition. We will examine the impact of health care
transition on receipt of high quality care for the treatment of specific MBDD (e.g., depression), and evaluate
the extent to which socioeconomic factors moderate this association, potentially exacerbating disparities (Aim
2). Finally, we will use latent class analysis to ascertain mental health outcome patterns and subsequently
identify if and to what extent health care transition is associated with these outcome patterns (e.g., whether
later age at transition is associated with worsening mental health); further we also evaluate the extent to which
socioeconomic factors moderate this association (Aim 3). For Aims 1 and 3, we will obtain estimates for the
overall population with MBDD and for disease subtypes (e.g., depression). The scope and size of our dataset
will allow us to generate precise estimates across these subgroups and will provide important new information
on when and how to intervene to equitably improve mental health outcomes across this critical stage in the
life-course. The analyses proposed under this study will generate new and actionable information for
policymakers aiming to better understand and mitigate the impacts of inequalities across the transition from
adolescence into adulthood.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10846079
- **Project number:** 1R01MH131597-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Lauren Elisabeth Wisk
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $353,039
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-05-06 → 2029-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10846079

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10846079, Health care transition utilization and outcomes for youth with mental, behavioral, and developmental disorders (1R01MH131597-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10846079. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*