The Burden of Stress in America 2014 Survey

Burden of Stress in America 2014 Survey
Burden of stress 2014 survey

The Burden of Stress in America’s 2014 survey examined the role of stress in different aspects of Americans’ lives, as part of several events sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The survey was conducted from March 5 to April 8, 2014 with a sample of 2,505 respondents. The poll was developed by researchers at the Harvard Opinion Research Program (HORP) at the Harvard School of Public Health in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and NPR.

Some highlights and results from the survey:

— Half of all respondents report a major stressful event or experience in the past year –  49% of the public reported that they did have such an event or experience in the past year.

— One quarter of the people report a great deal of stress in the past month; those in poor health were more than twice as likely to report a great deal of stress.

— Too many overall responsibilities and financial problems were key contributors to stress for those who experienced a great deal of stress.

— About 70 percent of individuals who experienced a great deal of stress in the past month say it affected their family life, health and social life.

— The majority of people who reported a great deal of stress in the last month believe that stress has a major impact on most people’s health (72%) and family life (69%).

— Close to three-fourths of those polled (74%) identified their health as a sphere affected by stress. The most commonly reported effect on health was poor emotional well-being; problems with sleep and difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions.

— Only one-third of those polled who reported having a ‘great deal’ of stress within the past month said that they had a great deal of control over the stress in their life.

Read More: media.npr.org

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