Community perception towards mental illness and help-seeking intention in Southwest Ethiopian Peoples Regional State

Dawit Getachew; Gebremeskel Mesafint; Nahom Solomon; Kidus Yenealem; Zenebu Muche; Sewagegn Demelash

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0310512

Community perception towards mental illness and help-seeking intention in Southwest Ethiopian Peoples Regional State

PLoS One. 2024 Oct 11;19(10):e0310512. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310512. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Dawit Getachew¹, Gebremeskel Mesafint², Nahom Solomon¹, Kidus Yenealem³, Zenebu Muche⁴, Sewagegn Demelash⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan Tepi University, Mizan Aman, Southwest Ethiopia Regional State, Ethiopia.
² Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan Tepi University, Mizan Aman, Southwest Ethiopia Regional State, Ethiopia.
³ Department of Social Work, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Gondar, Gondar, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Institute of Educational and Behavioral Science, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: Community perception of mental illness is a collective belief system and attitude about mental disorders; it affects the availability of services, the level of stigma, and the help-seeking intention. This study assessed community perceptions towards mental illness and help-seeking intentions in Southwest Ethiopia.

Methods and material: A community-based analytical cross-sectional study was done in Southwest Ethiopian People's Regional State (SWEPRS), from March 1st to June 30th, 2021. All adult individuals >18 years old living in the region were the source population, while all adult >18 years old living in the selected household were the study population. The calculated sample size was 1028. Participants were selected using a multistage sampling technique. A structured, interview-based questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were entered into Epidata Manager and exported to SPSS for analysis.

Result: The response rate for this study was 95.4%. The prevalence of poor perception and unfavorable help-seeking intention of mental illness were 45.8%, 95% CI (42.6, 48.9), and 49.5%, 95% CI (46.4, 52.7) respectively. Being rural [AOR = 1.94 (95% CI:(1.41, 2.66)]c, lack of information [AOR = 4.82(95% CI: (3.39,6.83)], exposure to mental illness [AOR = 4.11(95% CI:(2.64,6.38)] were significantly associated with poor perception of mental illness. Also, gating mental illness information [AOR = 0.40 (95% CI: (0.19, 0.83)], and being exposed to mental illness [AOR = 0.56 (95% CI: (0.41, 0.79)] were significantly associated with unfavorable help-seeking intentions for mental illness.

Conclusion: The high prevalence of poor perceptions and unfavorable help-seeking intentions for mental illness can be minimized through providing tailored information regarding the cause, type, and severity of the problem, particularly in the rural areas.

Copyright: © 2024 Getachew et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Cross-Sectional Studies
Ethiopia / epidemiology
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Help-Seeking Behavior
Humans
Intention
Male
Mental Disorders* / epidemiology
Mental Disorders* / psychology
Middle Aged
Patient Acceptance of Health Care / psychology
Perception
Rural Population
Social Stigma
Surveys and Questionnaires
Young Adult

Grants and funding

Mizan-Tepi University provided funding for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.