Prevalence of common mental disorders in indigenous people from five departments of Paraguay
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Introduction: common mental disorders can have a significant impact on the lives of indigenous people, leading to disability, decreased productivity, and increased mortality.
Objective: to determine the prevalence of common mental disorders in indigenous people from five departments of Paraguay in 2022.
Methodology: a cross-sectional, descriptive observational study was conducted in indigenous people residing in the departments of Alto Paraguay, Boquerón, Concepción, Caaguazú, and Presidente Hayes, Paraguay. Data were collected using the Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). This instrument consisted of 20 yes/no questions pertaining to the month prior to the interview.
Results: a total of 779 indigenous people aged 18-69 years participated in the study. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.89, and the Kaiser-Meyers-Olkin measure was 0.88. The Self Reporting Questionnaire + was 25.80 % (201), 14.51 % (113) had symptoms of depression, 16.17 % (126) had symptoms of anxiety, and 12.58 % (98) had symptoms of psychosis.
Conclusion: a high prevalence of common mental disorders was found, according to the Self Reporting Questionnaire, with psychosis being the most common. These findings underscore the need to improve access to mental health services for indigenous people in Paraguay.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Organización Panamericana de la Salud. Organización Mundial de la Salud. La carga de los trastornos mentales en la Región de las Américas, 2018. Washington, D.C.: OPS/OMS; 2018. Disponible en: https://iris.paho.org/bitstream/handle/10665.2/49578/9789275320280_spa.pdf?sequence=9
GBD 2019 Mental Disorders Collaborators. Global, regional, and national burden of 12 mental disorders in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet Psychiatry. 2022;9(2):137-150. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00395-3.
Organización Mundial de la Salud. Depression and other common mental disorders: global health estimates. Ginebra: OMS; 2017. Disponibe en: https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/254610/WHO-MSD-MER-2017.2-eng.pdf?sequence=1
Liverpool S, Prescod J, Pereira B, Trotman C. Prevalence of mental health and behaviour problems among adolescents in the English-speaking Caribbean: systematic review and meta-analysis. Discov Ment Health. 2023;3(1):11. doi: 10.1007/s44192-023-00037-2.
Aboaja A, Wahab A, Cao YY, O’Higgins M, Torales J. Mental health in the republic of Paraguay. BJPsych International. 2022;19(1):10–2. doi:10.1192/bji.2021.24
Patel V, Saxena S, Lund C, Thornicroft SG, Baingana F, Bolton P, et al. The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development. The Lancet. 2018;392(10157):1553-1598. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31612-X
United Nations. Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. 2020. Disponible en: https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-indigenous-peoples
Ninomiya MEM, Burns N, Pollock NJ, Green NTG, Martin J, Linton J, et al. Indigenous communities and the mental health impacts of land dispossession related to industrial resource development: a systematic review. Lancet Planet Health. 2023;7(6):e501-e517. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00079-7.
United Nations. The united nations permanent forum on indigenous issues: together we achieve. 2022. Disponible en: https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/2015/media/post-2015-hunger-disease.pdf
Beusenberg M, Orley JH, World Health Organization. A user’s guide to the self-reporting questionnaire. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1994.
Organización Mundial de la Salud. Salud mental: una cuestión de salud pública. Ginebra: Organización Mundial de la Salud; 2001.
Firestone M, McConkey S, Beaudoin E, Bourgeois C, Smylie J. Mental health and cultural continuity among an urban Indigenous population in Toronto, Canada. Can J Public Health. 2022. doi: 10.17269/s41997-022-00709-6.
Ishida K, Stupp P, Melian M, Serbanescu F, Goodwin M. Exploring the associations between intimate partner violence and women's mental health: evidence from a population-based study in Paraguay. Soc Sci Med. 2010;71(9):1653-61. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.08.007.
Leandro JT. Fiabilidad de las escalas: interpretación y limitaciones del Alfa de Cronbach. 2020.
Do TTH, Bui QTT, Ha BTT, Le TM, Le VT, Nguyen QT, et al. Using the WHO Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20) to Detect Symptoms of Common Mental Disorders among Pregnant Women in Vietnam: a Validation Study. Int J Womens Health. 2023;15:599-609. doi: 10.2147/IJWH.S404993.
Netsereab TB, Kifle MM, Tesfagiorgis RB, Habteab SG, Weldeabzgi YK, Tesfamariam OZ. Validation of the WHO self-reporting questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20) item in primary health care settings in Eritrea. Int J Ment Health Syst. 2018;12:61. doi: 10.1186/s13033-018-0242-y.
Tsigebrhan R, Fekadu A, Medhin G, Newton CR, Prince MJ, Hanlon C. Performance of primary health care workers in detection of mental disorders comorbid with epilepsy in rural Ethiopia. BMC Fam Pract. 2021;22(1):204. doi: 10.1186/s12875-021-01551-4.
Diez-Canseco F, Toyama M, Ipince A, Perez-Leon S, Cavero V, Araya R, Miranda JJ. Integration of a technology-based mental health screening program into routine practices of primary health care services in Peru (The Allillanchu Project): development and implementation. J Med Internet Res. 2018;20(3):e100. doi: 10.2196/jmir.9208.
van der Westhuizen C, Wyatt G, Williams JK, Stein DJ, Sorsdahl K. Validation of the Self Reporting Questionnaire 20-Item (SRQ-20) for Use in a Low- and Middle-Income Country Emergency Centre Setting. Int J Ment Health Addict. 2016;14(1):37-48. doi: 10.1007/s11469-015-9566-x.
Office of the Surgeon General (US); Center for Mental Health Services (US); National Institute of Mental Health (US). Mental health: culture, race, and ethnicity: a supplement to mental health: a report of the surgeon general. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2001.Disponible en: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44249/
Horn R, Sesay SS, Jalloh M, Bayoh A, Lavally JB, Ager A. Expressions of psychological distress in Sierra Leone: implications for community-based prevention and response. Glob Ment Health (Camb). 2020;7:e19. doi: 10.1017/gmh.2020.12.