Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY
Volume 60, Issue 5, Pages 454-461Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0020764013495527
Keywords
Common mental disorder; depression; health service utilization; primary health care; developing countries
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Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [U19 MH095699, U19MH095699] Funding Source: Medline
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Background: There has been no study carried out to assess health service utilization by people with common mental disorder (CMD) in Malawi. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate health service utilization patterns of patients with CMD in primary health care (PHC) clinics. Methods: The study was conducted in two PHC clinics in one of the 28 districts in Malawi. Face-to-face interviews with the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) were conducted in a sample of 323 PHC attendees aged 18 years and older who attended the PHC clinics for any reason. Results: The prevalence of probable CMD in the sample was 20.1%. People with probable CMD had a higher mean number of health facility visits in the previous three months compared to those without probable CMD (1.6 vs 1.19, p = .02). Conclusion: The study reveals high utilization of health services for people with CMD in the PHC setting. There is a need for PHC workers to improve skills in diagnosing patients with CMD to make PHC services more effective by reducing re-attendance and improving patient outcomes.
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