Identifying socio-demographic and socioeconomic determinants of health inequalities in a diverse London community: the South East London Community Health (SELCoH) study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Nicola T Fear¹  Matthew Hotopf²  Souci Frissa²  Abraham Reichenberg²  Bwalya Kankulu²  Jennifer Clark²  Robert Medcalf²  Stephani L Hatch²  Maria Verdecchia²  Billy Gazard²  Robert Stewart³  Craig Morgan⁴ 

[1] King's College London, Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health, 10 Cutcombe Road, SE5 9RJ, London, UK;King's College London, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, 10 Cutcombe Road, SE5 9RJ, London, UK;King's College London, Section of Epidemiology, Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Box P060 De Crespigny Park, SE5 8AF, London, UK;King's College London, Section of Social Psychiatry, Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Box P063 De Crespigny Park, SE5 8AF, London, UK;

关键词: Common Mental Disorder;    Socioeconomic Indicator;    Poor General Health;    Hazardous Alcohol;    Longstanding Illness;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-861

 received in 2011-08-02, accepted in 2011-11-11,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundResponses to public health need require information on the distribution of mental and physical ill health by demographic and socioeconomic factors at the local community level.MethodsThe South East London Community Health (SELCoH) study is a community psychiatric and physical morbidity survey. Trained interviewers conducted face-to-face computer assisted interviews with 1698 adults aged 16 years and over, from 1076 randomly selected private households in two south London boroughs. We compared the prevalence of common mental disorders, hazardous alcohol use, long standing illness and general physical health by demographic and socioeconomic indicators. Unadjusted and models adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic indicators are presented for all logistic regression models.ResultsOf those in the sample, 24.2% reported common mental disorder and 44.9% reported having a long standing illness, with 15.7% reporting hazardous alcohol consumption and 19.2% rating their health as fair or poor. The pattern of indicators identifying health inequalities for common mental disorder, poor general health and having a long term illness is similar; individuals who are socioeconomically disadvantaged have poorer health and physical health worsens as age increases for all groups. The prevalence of poor health outcomes by ethnic group suggests that there are important differences between groups, particularly for common mental disorder and poor general health. Higher socioeconomic status was protective for common mental disorder, fair or poor health and long standing illness, but those with higher socioeconomic status reported higher levels of hazardous alcohol use. The proportion of participants who met the criteria for common mental disorder with co-occurring functional limitations was similar or greater to those with poor physical health.ConclusionsHealth service providers and policy makers should prioritise high risk, socially defined groups in combating inequalities in individual and co-occurring poor mental and physical problems. In population terms, poor mental health has a similar or greater burden on functional impairment than long term conditions and perceived health.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Hatch et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011