An Objective Look at the Presence and Severity of Mental Health Issues in Indian Men in Gujarat

Authors

  • Dr. Siddharth Chowdhury
  • Dr. Rajesh Sagar Professor, Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS, New Delhi, India
  • Dr. Rutu Trivedi Thematic Lead – Mental Health, Gujarat, World Health Partners, New Delhi, India
  • Abhijeet Saxena Data Manager, World Health Partners, New Delhi, India
  • Narender Yadav Team Lead CAMH, World Health Partners, New Delhi, India
  • Prachi Shukla Country Director, World Health Partners, New Delhi, India
  • Dr. Ajay Chauhan Nodal Officer, Mental Health, Gujarat, India
  • Dr.  Amar Shah Sr. TB Advisor (Strategy and Innovation), Health Office, USAID/India, New Delhi
  • Decency Rajput
  • Dr. Gowri Nambiar Sengupta Deputy Director General, Mental Health, MOHFW, Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25215/1102.009

Keywords:

PHQ-4, Anxiety, Depression, Mental Health Screening, COVID, gender differences, help seeking behaviour

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present an objective look at the presence and severity of mental health issue in men across the selected intervention districts in Gujarat and in the COVID-19 era. The survey was undertaken between June 2021 and December 2022. It was largely representative of the population, as 168,639 people were taken from 50,780 households of 7 districts of Gujarat. The survey population aged 15 to 65 years. 70,767 men were screened for anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts (if scores severe on screening). Conditions which they were facing were explored by a semi structured script accompanied with PHQ4 as a screening tool. They were further provided with psychological intervention(s) in the cases where mental health challenges were reported. This paper presents selected findings for the pattern with respect to socio-demographic differences in the male population who reported mental health problems N=2141. Our data showed us that males exhibited a prevalence rate of 3.02%  and we thus decided to take a look into the socio-economic and demographic data we had available. It was found that, unemployed males exhibited more mental health issues than males in other age groups. Illiterate males were more likely to experience severe MH issues. Males who were divorced/separated/widowers were more likely to experience severe and moderate MH issues as a whole than other marital groups.

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Published

2022-11-05

How to Cite

Dr. Siddharth Chowdhury, Dr. Rajesh Sagar, Dr. Rutu Trivedi, Abhijeet Saxena, Narender Yadav, Prachi Shukla, Dr. Ajay Chauhan, Dr. AmarShah, Decency Rajput, & Dr. Gowri Nambiar Sengupta. (2022). An Objective Look at the Presence and Severity of Mental Health Issues in Indian Men in Gujarat. International Journal of Indian Psychȯlogy, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.25215/1102.009