Articles: mental-health-statistics-numerical-data.
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More than 2 decades of conflict have led to widespread human suffering and population displacement in Afghanistan. In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other collaborating partners performed a national population-based mental health survey in Afghanistan. ⋯ In this nationally representative survey of Afghans, prevalence rates of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD were high. These data underscore the need for donors and health care planners to address the current lack of mental health care resources, facilities, and trained mental health care professionals in Afghanistan.
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Comparative Study
The health of primary caregivers of children with cerebral palsy: how does it compare with that of other Canadian caregivers?
Caring for any child involves considerable resources, but the demands for these resources are often increased when caring for a child with a disability. These demands have implications for the psychologic and physical health of the caregiver (CG). Although a number of recent trends in health care stress the importance of studying and promoting the health of CGs of children with disabilities, the literature in this area exhibits 2 major weaknesses, ie, most studies draw conclusions from relatively small, potentially biased, clinic-based samples and the majority of work has focused on the psychologic health of CGs, whereas little research has been undertaken to study their physical well-being. The goal of this study was to compare the physical and psychologic health of CGs of children with cerebral palsy (CP) with that of the general population of CGs. ⋯ Although many families cope well despite the added challenges of caring for a child with a disability, our findings suggest that the demands of their children's disabilities can explain differences in the health status of parents and that parents of children with CP are more likely to have a variety of physical and psychologic health problems. Many of these findings are consistent with a stress process model, in which stress from caregiving can directly or indirectly affect a variety of measures of health, although some of the findings (asthma and arthritis) seem to strain this hypothesis. Alternate interpretations of these findings include the possibility that parents who are in regular contact with the health care system may have more opportunities to discuss and receive attention for their own health concerns than do comparison adults or that the greater number of health issues reported by CGs is related to the nature of our study, perhaps leading these parents to focus on their health and well-being in more depth than is usually feasible in a population survey. CGs of children with CP also had lower incomes, despite the absence of any important differences in education. The findings are consistent with the idea that the financial burden of caring for a child with a disability results in part from a reduced availability of these parents to work for pay. IMPLICATIONS FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS: Physicians and other health care professionals should be aware of the important relationship between child disability and CG health. Family-centered policies and services that explicitly consider CG health are likely to benefit the well-being of both CGs and their families. Future work should address the extent to which the family-centeredness of services, as experienced by CGs, is associated with better health outcomes for parents and their families.
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The long-term psychological effects of war are under appreciated in clinical settings. Describing the postwar psychosocial burden on medical care can help direct public health interventions. We performed an emergency department (ED)-based assessment of the mental health status of ethnic Albanian patients 2 years after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led bombing of Serbia and Kosovo in 1999. ⋯ Mental health problems among ED patients in Kosovo, particularly among specific vulnerable populations, are a significant public health concern 2 years after the conflict.
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Although political violence continues in parts of Central America, South America, and Mexico, little is known about its relationship to the health of Latino immigrants living in the United States. ⋯ Latino immigrants in primary care in Los Angeles have a high prevalence of exposure to political violence before immigrating to the United States and associated impairments in mental health and health-related quality of life.
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J Interpers Violence · Aug 2003
Childhood and adult abuse among women in primary health care: effects on mental health.
The study looked at 557 women participating in an evaluation of a domestic violence screening intervention in a primary care setting. Depression and anxiety were investigated in relation to seven types of child and adult intimate partner abuse. ⋯ Multivariate analyses suggested that recent intimate partner violence and high-severity child abuse increased risk for depression, and both recent and past intimate partner violence as well as child abuse increased risk for anxiety. In addition, higher levels of cumulative abuse increased risk for depression and anxiety over the life span even after controlling for other risk factors.