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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 5/2013

01-05-2013 | Original Paper

Ethnic inequalities in the use of health services for common mental disorders in England

Authors: Claudia Cooper, Nicola Spiers, Gill Livingston, Rachel Jenkins, Howard Meltzer, Terry Brugha, Sally McManus, Scott Weich, Paul Bebbington

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 5/2013

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether minority ethnic people were less likely to receive treatment for mental health problems than the white population were, controlling for symptom severity.

Method

We analysed data from 23,917 participants in the 1993, 2000 and 2007 National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys. Survey response rates were 79, 69 and 57 %, respectively. The revised Clinical Interview Schedule was used to adjust for symptom severity.

Results

Black people were less likely to be taking antidepressants than their white counterparts were (Odds ratio 0.4; 95 % confidence interval 0.2–0.9) after controlling for symptom severity. After controlling for symptom severity and socioeconomic status, people from black (0.7; 0.5–0.97) and South Asian (0.5; 0.3–0.8) ethnic groups were less likely to have contacted a GP about their mental health in the last year.

Conclusions

Interventions to reduce these inequalities are needed to ensure that NHS health care is delivered fairly according to need to all ethnic groups.
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Metadata
Title
Ethnic inequalities in the use of health services for common mental disorders in England
Authors
Claudia Cooper
Nicola Spiers
Gill Livingston
Rachel Jenkins
Howard Meltzer
Terry Brugha
Sally McManus
Scott Weich
Paul Bebbington
Publication date
01-05-2013
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 5/2013
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0565-y

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