Recent physical conditions and health service utilization in people with common mental disorders and severe mental illness in England: Comparative cross-sectional data from a nationally representative sample

Policies addressing the physical health of people with mental disorders have historically focused on those with severe mental illness (SMI), giving less prominence to the more prevalent common mental disorders (CMDs). Little is known about the comparative physical health outcomes of these patient groups. We aimed to first compare the: (a) number of past-year chronic physical conditions and (b) recent physical health service utilization between CMDs vs. SMI, and secondly compare these outcomes between people with CMDs vs. people without mental disorders.

We analyzed cross-sectional data from the third Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, a representative sample of the English population. We determined the presence of physical conditions and health service utilization by self-report and performed logistic regression models to examine associations of these outcomes between participant groups.

Past-year physical conditions were reported by the majority of participants (CMDs, n = 815, 62.1%; SMI = 27, 63.1%) with no variation in the adjusted odds of at least one physical condition between diagnoses (odds ratio [OR] = 0.96, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.42-1.98, p = 0.784). People with CMDs were significantly more likely to be recently hospitalized relative to with those with SMI (OR = 6.33, 95% CI 5.50-9.01, p < 0.05). Having a CMD was associated with significantly higher odds of past-year physical conditions and recent health service utilization (all p < 0.001) compared with the general population.

People with CMDs experience excess physical health morbidities in a similar pattern to those found among people with SMI, while their somatic hospitalization rates are even more elevated. Findings highlight the importance of recalibrating existing public health strategies to bring equity to the physical health needs of this patient group.