Severity and prevalence of various types of mental ill-health in a general adult population: Age and sex differences

Abstract

Background Taking a broad approach, the aim of this study was to better understand the extent of severity and prevalence in various types of mental ill-health across age groups and sexes in the general adult population. A first objective was to determine symptom severity of anxiety, depression, insomnia, burnout and somatization in combinations of different age groups and sex. A second objective was to determine prevalence of caseness of these types of mental ill-health in both absolute and relative terms in the combinations of age groups and sex. Methods Cross-sectional data based on validated questionnaire instruments were used from the Västerbotten Environmental Health Study in Sweden. In total, 3406 participants, aged 18 to 79 years, constituted a random sample stratified for age and sex. Results Severity and prevalence of anxiety, insomnia and burnout were high among women, in particular young women, and lower in older age groups. The prevalence rates for insomnia, burnout and somatization were particularly high based on the used cut-off scores. Men aged 30-49 years had the highest prevalence for mental ill-health compared to other age groups among men. Men and women aged 60-69 years had generally the lowest symptom severity and caseness. The prevalence for depression was similar in men and women in all age groups, whereas sex-related differences in extent in general were largest in the youngest age group, and gradually decreased with age. Conclusion The results suggest that focus in primary healthcare needs to be directed primarily towards insomnia, burnout and somatization as well as on young women.

Mental health impacts among health workers during COVID-19 in a low resource setting: a cross-sectional survey from Nepal

“…The HADS is a commonly used tool for measuring anxiety and depression in different settings in many countries including Nepal [ 17 – 22 ]. It has seven items each for measurement of anxiety and depression which are scored from 0 to 21.…”

Mental health impacts among health workers during COVID-19 in a low resource setting: a cross-sectional survey from Nepal

“…The HADS is a commonly used tool for measuring anxiety and depression in different settings in many countries including Nepal [17][18][19][20][21][22]. It has seven items each for measurement of anxiety and depression which are scored from 0-21.…”

“…It has seven items each for measurement of anxiety and depression which are scored from 0-21. The total scores of these tools were interpreted as normal (0-7), borderline abnormal (8-10) and abnormal (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). For analysis, score more than 7 was considered as the presence of anxiety and depression.…”

“…For analysis, score more than 7 was considered as the presence of anxiety and depression. Similarly, the score of ISI which records sleep outcome in the past two weeks was categorised as no clinically signi cant insomnia (0-7), subthreshold insomnia (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), moderate clinical insomnia (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21) and severe clinical insomnia (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28) as in studies done elsewhere [8,[23][24][25][26]. For further analysis, a cut-off score of 10 was used to categorise the presence or absence of insomnia as suggested by Morin CM et al [27].…”

Standardized multimodal intervention for stress-induced exhaustion disorder: an open trial in a clinical setting

“…SED (F43.8A) was accepted in the Swedish version of the ICD-10 in 2005 and can be regarded as an operationalization of severe “clinical burnout” [ 5 ]. Few studies have been published regarding the prevalence of SED, but in a recent cross-sectional study in northern Sweden, 4.2% of 3406 participants reported a physician-based diagnosis of SED [ 14 ]. Furthermore, there is a growing body of literature indicating that SED could be associated with structural brain changes and biochemical irregularities [ 15 – 17 ].…”