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Normality, deviance and minor psychiatric morbidity in the community

A population-based approach to General Health Questionnaire data in the Health and Lifestyle Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Jeremy Anderson ,
Felicia Huppert  and
Geoffrey Rose
Jeremy Anderson*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London; and Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
Felicia Huppert
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London; and Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
Geoffrey Rose
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London; and Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Jeremy Anderson, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Private Bag, Dunedin, New Zealand.
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Synopsis

This paper investigates factors affecting the distribution of psychiatric morbidity in the community. It identifies a close relationship between mean Chronic General Health Questionnaire (CGHQ) scores in subdivisions of a large random sample of the community (the Health and Lifestyle Survey, N = 6317) and the prevalence in these groups of abnormal, above-threshold CGHQ scores. The frequency distributions of CGHQ scores in these different populations move up and down as a whole: like other physiological and behavioural attributes, these mental health outcomes in individuals are associated with characteristics of the populations in which they arise. Populations thus carry a collective responsibility for their own mental health and well-being. This implies that explanations for the differing prevalence rates of psychiatric morbidity must be sought in the characteristics of their parent populations; and control measures are unlikely to succeed if they do not involve population-wide changes.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , May 1993 , pp. 475 - 485
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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