Comparisons of Australian Mental Health Distributions

Abstract: Bayesian nonparametric estimates of Australian mental health distributions are obtained to assess how the mental health status of the population has changed over time and to compare the mental health status of female/male and indigenous/non-indigenous population subgroups. First- and second-order stochastic dominance are used to compare distributions, with results presented in terms of the posterior probability of dominance and the posterior probability of no dominance. Our results suggest mental health has deteriorated in recent years, that males mental health status is better than that of females, and non-indigenous health status is better than that of the indigenous population.