The Effects of Social Reforms on Mental Disability in China: Population-Based Study

Few studies have explored how mental disabilities have changed with the waves of Chinese social reforms that occurred between 1912 and 2006. The present study evaluated population-based data from the Second China National Sample Survey on Disability to investigate these trends and their effects on mental disabilities. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the association between social reforms and mental disabilities. The confounding variables considered were as follows: survey age, gender, residence in 2006, ethnicity, and living arrangements in 2006. The highest risks of mental disabilities were observed in subjects born during the Mao Zedong era. Subjects who experienced social turbulence during their early development may have increased risks of mental disabilities in adulthood. The results and discussion herein contribute to our understanding of mental disabilities in China within the context of changing political, socioeconomic, and health system conditions and a developing mental health system.