Mental Health Awareness week started on the 15th of May, and we decided it would be a good time to look at the data trends since before Covid, specifically the disclosure rates of common mental health conditions, including stress, anxiety, and depression.

Our data shows that since 2019 disclosure rates have continued to increase from 10.91% in 2019 to 15.46% year to date in 2023.

This is interesting because we started using our new mental health question set in March 2020. Our aims for the new questions were to make application process simpler and easier to understand, to improve customer engagement and drive better disclosure rates. The results show this has worked out as planned.

Looking a little closer at 2022 we checked out the disclosures via our 5 year mental health question: (“In the last 5 years have you had any of these: Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Any other mental health issue.”) We discovered more than twice as many females disclosed mental health issues compared to males. We were also able to see both genders under age 30 are more likely to disclose something with fewer disclosures the older our customers get.

What does this mean? Either more youngsters/women have anxiety, or more youngsters/women are comfortable talking about anxiety.

And these results mirror population trends as women between the ages of 16 and 24 are almost three times as likely (26%) to experience a common mental health issue as males of the same age (9%). Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety as men. (Source: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/statistics/men-women-statistics)

Individuals and businesses are more aware than ever of the importance of understanding mental health issues and how they affect clients and colleagues, and how imperative it is to help manage them with empathy. Our data supports this, and we’d like to help you.

If you are a product provider get in touch and let’s discuss how we can help you with your mental health underwriting philosophy. If you are an adviser, let’s talk about how our Protection Platform can help you source the best cover for your clients who disclose mental health issues.

Steve Baldry

Director, Underwriting, UnderwriteMe