Prevalence of Psychiatric Morbidities in School Going Adolescents in a Rural Block of Haryana

Abstract

Background: Mental health problems have increased considerably among adolescents in the past 20-30 years. According to the present estimates by World Health Organization, mental illnesses are the leading causes of disability adjusted life years globally. Objectives: To find out prevalence of psychiatric disorders among school going adolescents and to find its association with socio demographic variables. Methods and Materials: It is a school based, rural community setting with cross-sectional design. Study was conducted in 600 students (300 males and 300 females) studying in class 8 th to 12 th. A pre-designed, pre-tested tool Symptom Checklist 90 Revised containing 90 items was used to screen these students. The global severity index (GSI) was used to measure the extent or depth of individual`s psychiatric disturbances. Descriptive statistics and chi square test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was found to be 35%. It increased statistical significantly with age. Females had more problems as compared to males. Maximum number of students with psychiatric morbidity were from class 12 (43%) and class 10 (37%) and from upper middle class (34.5%) followed by middle class (35.3%). Conclusion: It is concluded that more than one-third (35%) of adolescents who were apparently healthy suffered from unnoticed mental health problems.