A case control study: sociodemographic variant for mental illness

Journal Title: International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health - Year 2016, Vol 5, Issue 6

Abstract

 Background: Psychiatric disorders are common in the community. The need of the hour is to develop epidemiological databases (registries) of adequate sample sizes with better funding and coordination, utilizing culture-specific study instruments, which would aid in delineating the etiology and management of mental disorders. With this in mind and to bridge the gap, a case control study has been performed to find out various epidemiological variants of mental illness among the people of Ahmedabad city. Objective: To study associated risk factors in patients with mental illness and in normal persons, that is, controls and to find odds ratio (OR) for comparison of various risk factors in cases (mentally ill) and controls (normal person not mentally ill). Materials and Methods: Adults aged 18–65 years having mental illness were considered as cases and those who were not having the mental illness were considered as controls. The cases were coming to attend the Psychiatric Out-Patient Department of Civil Hospital Ahmedabad (CHA). They belong to various parts of Ahmedabad District and neighborhood community of CHA. The controls were from the neighborhood community of CHA. Study was conducted from March 2012 to April 2013. Result: OR was estimated to be 1, which signifies that difference in gender does not increase the risk for mental illness. Mean age in cases was found to be 35.49 (11.92) years. A total of 125 cases (75.75%) and 140 controls (84.84%) were Hindus followed by 36 cases (21.81%) and 23 controls (13.93%) of Muslims. It was observed that unemployment increases the risk for mental illness by nearly 16 times (OR = 16.15). Conclusion: The results clearly indicate that mental illness is multifactorial in origin and by just studying a single cause is not enough for its prevention or cure. The need of the hour is to study the whole network of mental illness causation so that better cure and prevention could be planned.

Authors and Affiliations

Medhavi Agarwal, Jaimin Kumar Patel, MK Lala

Keywords

Related Articles

Familial multiple lipomatosis—a rare syndrome diagnosed on FNAC

Familial multiple lipomatosis (FML) is a very rare benign condition with the prevalence of 0.002% in general population (1:50,000). It is inherited as an autosomal dominant disease. It is more prevalent in men. It is c...

Attitude of medical students toward serving in rural areas and its determinants: a cross-sectional study from Uttarakhand

Background: As 70% of population of India resides in rural areas, there is need of providing effective health care to people in these areas. Health care system in rural areas faces the challenge of shortage of doctor...

Neonatal transient myasthenia gravis and a case with intestinal perforation

Transient neonatal myasthenia gravis (MG) is observed in babies born to mothers with MG. Hypotony and respiratory distress are the most important warning signs observed in these babies. Anticholinesterases are used in...

Determinants of delays in diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in a new urban township in India: A cross-sectional study

Background: The period of infectiousness of a new sputum smear - positive pulmonary tuberculosis case is important in determining the risk of exposure faced by the community. Early detection and effective treatment...

Is there a difference between the flexible and rigid reamer in femoral tunnel length in ACL reconstruction in anteromedial portal

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction was functionally done on trans-tibial section and was creating vertical long tunnel. Nowadays, it is done by modified trans-tibial and anterior-medial portal wh...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP118059
  • DOI 10.5455/ijmsph.2016.20072015158
  • Views 103
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Medhavi Agarwal, Jaimin Kumar Patel, MK Lala (2016).  A case control study: sociodemographic variant for mental illness. International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health, 5(6), 1092-1097. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-118059