| Title |
Health care seeking behavior for depression in Northeast Ethiopia: depression is not considered as illness by more than half of the participants
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Annals of General Psychiatry, August 2018
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12991-018-0205-3 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Melak Menberu, Tesfa Mekonen, Telake Azale, Getinet Ayano, Solomon Yimer, Asmamaw Getnet, Amsalu Belete, Sitotaw Kerie, Wubalem Fekadu |
| Abstract |
Depression is one of the most disabling and chronic mental illnesses. Despite its high burden, many people suffering from depression did not perceive that they had a treatable illness and consequently most of them did not seek professional help. The aim of this study was to assess the level of professional help-seeking behavior and associated factors among individuals with depression. The community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among residents of Dessie, Northeast Ethiopia. First, 1165 residents were screened for depression using patient health questionnaire and then 226 individuals who were screened positive for probable depression were interviewed with General Help-Seeking Questionnaire to assess the professional help-seeking behavior of participants with depression. Major associated variables were identified using logistic regression with 95% confidence interval (CI), and variables with a p value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Among the total participants with depressive symptoms, only 25.66% of them did seek professional help. Being female [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.769, 95% CI (1.280, 5.99)], current alcohol drinking [AOR = 2.74, 95% CI (1.265, 5.940)], co-morbid medical-surgical illness [AOR = 4.49, 95% CI (1.823, 11.071)], perceiving depression as illness [AOR = 2.44, 95% CI (1.264, 4.928)], having moderate depressive symptoms [AOR = 2.54, 95% CI (1.086, 5.928)] and moderately severe depressive symptoms [AOR = 7.67, 95% CI (2.699, 21.814)] were significantly associated with help seeking behavior of participants. Level of professional help-seeking behavior is as low as previous studies in different countries. The severity of depressive symptoms, co-morbidity of medical-surgical illness, current drinking of alcohol, being female, and perceiving depression as illness were significantly associated with professional help-seeking behavior for depressive symptoms. Working on mental health literacy in the community is important to increase help-seeking behavior. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 11 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Zimbabwe | 5 | 45% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | 18% |
| South Africa | 2 | 18% |
| Ethiopia | 1 | 9% |
| Unknown | 1 | 9% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 10 | 91% |
| Scientists | 1 | 9% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 96 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 96 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 10 | 10% |
| Student > Bachelor | 9 | 9% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 8 | 8% |
| Researcher | 7 | 7% |
| Other | 6 | 6% |
| Other | 17 | 18% |
| Unknown | 39 | 41% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 16 | 17% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 11 | 11% |
| Psychology | 10 | 10% |
| Social Sciences | 6 | 6% |
| Unspecified | 2 | 2% |
| Other | 9 | 9% |
| Unknown | 42 | 44% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 August 2018.
All research outputs
#3,765,670
of 23,337,345 outputs
Outputs from Annals of General Psychiatry
#103
of 521 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#72,400
of 331,390 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Annals of General Psychiatry
#2
of 5 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,337,345 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 521 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.9. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 331,390 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 5 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 3 of them.