Awareness and Practices of a Rural Community Regarding Mental Health Problems

Mental health is defined as "a state of well-being in which the person realizes his or her own skills, can deal with the normal stresses of life, can work effectively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community." Although mental health is essential to human survival, it is often given less attention than physical health in many parts of the world.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the rural community's awareness regarding mental health issues and the factors that contribute to them.

A cross-sectional study was undertaken in the rural community; 350 study subjects were selected from the village of Devarayasamudra by using convenient sampling, 350 households were selected, and household-level interviews were done using the Mental Health Knowledge Schedule questionnaire. Participants aged more than 18 were included in the study, and locked households, even after two visits, were excluded from the study.

The median aggregate knowledge score was 31 (SD = 7.1), with the minimum and maximum values being 11 and 44 out of 45 knowledge items, respectively. The total knowledge score found that 178 (50.8%) respondents had insufficient mental health knowledge based on the percentage of the study population with a cut-off score below and above the median score. A multivariate logistic regression analysis confirmed that participants who were illiterate had 1.76 (1.15-2.26) times the chances of having insufficient knowledge compared to professionals, and this remained true even after adjusting for other variables as well.

The present study concluded that more than 50% (50.8%) of the participants had inadequate awareness of mental health and mental illness. This highlights the need to spread awareness about mental health education among the general community.