Environmental, Health and Sociodemographic Determinants Related to Common Mental Disorders in Adults: A Spanish Country-Wide Population-Based Study (2006–2017)

Abstract

Common mental disorders (CMD) represent a serious, growing public health concern, especially in women. The aims of this study were to report the prevalence of CMD among the adult population in Spain, to analyze the time trends from 2006 to 2017 and to explore the associations between CMD and gender, in relation to the perceived environmental and sociodemographic problems and clinical factors. A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted including 48505 participants aged 16 to 64 years old who had participated in the Spanish National Health Surveys in 2006, 2011/2012 and 2017. A logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the variables associated with CMD by gender. The prevalence of CMD was 20.4% in 2006, 20.8% in 2011/2012 and 16.9% in 2017 (p = 0.36). In women, the probability of having a CMD was higher in widowed or separated/divorced compared with single individuals and as the perception of distressing noise levels from outside the home increased. The probability of CMD was lower as the level of education increased in men. Foreigners and those with limitations due to health problems, chronic conditions and worse perceived health were more likely to suffer from a CMD in both women and men.

Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Mental Health, Psychological Distress and Psychotropic Medication Consumption in Spain: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

“…Our results also revealed that crude and adjusted prevalence of mental disorders, psychological distress and psychotropic medication consumption were higher among women than among men. In accordance with our results, there is a large body of scientific evidence supporting the occurrence of poorer mental status health and increased psychotropic medication consumption among women compared to men [ 7 , 27 , 30 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Possible explanations for these results may be related to differences in emotional processing and coping skills, willingness to report diseases or structural inequalities and even intrinsic biological factors such as hormone mechanisms [ 29 ].…”

“…Our results also showed a decreased prevalence of prescription of psychotropic drugs compared to those reported in previous studies using the SNHIS 2011-2012 (SNHIS2017: 13.9% vs. SNHIS2011-2012: 15.6%) [11]. This descending trend across time has also been observed in other studies conducted in Spain with other methodological designs [29,30]. It contrasts results obtained from several countries such as Norway, the USA or Canada, where an increased prescription of psychotropic drugs was reported during the last decade [31][32][33][34][35].…”

Prevalence and trends of common mental disorders from 2007‐2009 to 2019‐2022: results from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Studies (NEMESIS), including comparison of prevalence rates before vs. during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Mood, anxiety and substance use disorders are common across the world, but studies examining trends in their prevalence in representative samples of the adult population have provided mixed findings. Some studies have found an increase in the prevalence rates of mental disorders or mental health problems over time [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] , while others have reported stable prevalence rates [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . No study has found evidence for a decrease in prevalence.…”

Environmental Determinants of Urban Mental Health: a Literature Review

“…Половые различия особенно ярко проявляются в случае реакции на шумовую экспозицию. Исследования показывают, что неблагоприятные последствия для психического здоровья под воздействием шума чаще отмечаются для женщин [54,55], для которых, согласно результатам некоторых работ, свойственна более высокая чувствительностью к шуму [48,49].…”