Mental health and help-seeking in Czech sexual minorities: a nationally representative cross-sectional study
Abstract Aims The mental health of sexual minority (SM) individuals remains overlooked and understudied in Czechia. We aimed to estimate (1) the prevalence rate and (2) the relative risk of common mental disorders and (3) the mental distress severity among the Czech SM people compared with the heter...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2045796024000210/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1797253771726684160 |
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| author | Michal Pitoňák Libor Potočár Tomáš Formánek |
| author_facet | Michal Pitoňák Libor Potočár Tomáš Formánek |
| author_sort | Michal Pitoňák |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract
Aims
The mental health of sexual minority (SM) individuals remains overlooked and understudied in Czechia. We aimed to estimate (1) the prevalence rate and (2) the relative risk of common mental disorders and (3) the mental distress severity among the Czech SM people compared with the heterosexual population. In addition, we aimed to investigate help-seeking for mental disorders in SM people.
Methods
We used data from a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey of Czech community-dwelling adults, consisting of 3063 respondents (response rate = 58.62%). We used the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview to assess the presence of mental disorders. In individuals scoring positively, we established help-seeking in the past 12 months. We assessed symptom severity using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale. We computed the prevalence of mental disorders and the treatment gap with 95% confidence intervals. To assess the risk of having a mental disorder, we used binary logistic regression.
Results
We demonstrated that the prevalence of current mental disorders was 18.85% (17.43–20.28), 52.27% (36.91–67.63), 33.33% (19.5–47.17) and 25.93% (13.85–38) in heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual and more sexually diverse individuals, respectively. Suicidal thoughts and behaviours were present in 5.73% (4.88–6.57), 25.00% (11.68–38.32), 22.92% (10.58–35.25) and 11.11% (2.45–19.77) of heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual and more sexually diverse individuals, respectively. After confounder adjustment, gay or lesbian individuals were more likely to have at least one current mental disorder compared with heterosexual counterparts (odds ratio = 3.51; 1.83–6.76). For bisexual and sexually more diverse individuals, the results were consistent with a null effect (1.85; 0.96–3.45 and 0.89; 0.42–1.73). The mean depression symptom severity was 2.96 (2.81–3.11) in heterosexual people and 4.68 (2.95–6.42), 7.12 (5.07–9.18) and 5.17 (3.38–6.95) in gay or lesbian, bisexual and more sexually diverse individuals, respectively. The mean anxiety symptom severity was 1.97 (1.85–2.08) in heterosexual people and 3.5 (1.98–5.02), 4.63 (3.05–6.2) and 3.7 (2.29–5.11) in gay or lesbian, bisexual and more sexually diverse individuals, respectively. We demonstrated broadly consistent levels of treatment gap in heterosexual and SM individuals scoring positively for at least one current mental disorder (82.91%; 79.5–85.96 vs. 81.13%; 68.03–90.56).
Conclusions
We provide evidence that SM people in Czechia have substantially worse mental health outcomes than their heterosexual counterparts. Systemic changes are imperative to provide not only better and more sensitive care to SM individuals but also to address structural stigma contributing to these health disparities.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T21:39:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5d3ae33491c54f73b2501118b739d90f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-7960 2045-7979 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T21:39:22Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-5d3ae33491c54f73b2501118b739d90f2024-03-21T10:26:04ZengCambridge University PressEpidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences2045-79602045-79792024-01-013310.1017/S2045796024000210Mental health and help-seeking in Czech sexual minorities: a nationally representative cross-sectional studyMichal Pitoňák0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6205-8369Libor Potočár1https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6064-0267Tomáš Formánek2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6740-6860Department of Public Mental Health, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, CzechiaDepartment of Public Mental Health, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, NorwayDepartment of Public Mental Health, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UKAbstract Aims The mental health of sexual minority (SM) individuals remains overlooked and understudied in Czechia. We aimed to estimate (1) the prevalence rate and (2) the relative risk of common mental disorders and (3) the mental distress severity among the Czech SM people compared with the heterosexual population. In addition, we aimed to investigate help-seeking for mental disorders in SM people. Methods We used data from a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey of Czech community-dwelling adults, consisting of 3063 respondents (response rate = 58.62%). We used the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview to assess the presence of mental disorders. In individuals scoring positively, we established help-seeking in the past 12 months. We assessed symptom severity using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale. We computed the prevalence of mental disorders and the treatment gap with 95% confidence intervals. To assess the risk of having a mental disorder, we used binary logistic regression. Results We demonstrated that the prevalence of current mental disorders was 18.85% (17.43–20.28), 52.27% (36.91–67.63), 33.33% (19.5–47.17) and 25.93% (13.85–38) in heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual and more sexually diverse individuals, respectively. Suicidal thoughts and behaviours were present in 5.73% (4.88–6.57), 25.00% (11.68–38.32), 22.92% (10.58–35.25) and 11.11% (2.45–19.77) of heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual and more sexually diverse individuals, respectively. After confounder adjustment, gay or lesbian individuals were more likely to have at least one current mental disorder compared with heterosexual counterparts (odds ratio = 3.51; 1.83–6.76). For bisexual and sexually more diverse individuals, the results were consistent with a null effect (1.85; 0.96–3.45 and 0.89; 0.42–1.73). The mean depression symptom severity was 2.96 (2.81–3.11) in heterosexual people and 4.68 (2.95–6.42), 7.12 (5.07–9.18) and 5.17 (3.38–6.95) in gay or lesbian, bisexual and more sexually diverse individuals, respectively. The mean anxiety symptom severity was 1.97 (1.85–2.08) in heterosexual people and 3.5 (1.98–5.02), 4.63 (3.05–6.2) and 3.7 (2.29–5.11) in gay or lesbian, bisexual and more sexually diverse individuals, respectively. We demonstrated broadly consistent levels of treatment gap in heterosexual and SM individuals scoring positively for at least one current mental disorder (82.91%; 79.5–85.96 vs. 81.13%; 68.03–90.56). Conclusions We provide evidence that SM people in Czechia have substantially worse mental health outcomes than their heterosexual counterparts. Systemic changes are imperative to provide not only better and more sensitive care to SM individuals but also to address structural stigma contributing to these health disparities. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2045796024000210/type/journal_articlemental disorderspopulation surveyprevalence rateprobability samplesexual minoritysexual orientationsuicidalitytreatment gap |
| spellingShingle | Michal Pitoňák Libor Potočár Tomáš Formánek Mental health and help-seeking in Czech sexual minorities: a nationally representative cross-sectional study Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences mental disorders population survey prevalence rate probability sample sexual minority sexual orientation suicidality treatment gap |
| title | Mental health and help-seeking in Czech sexual minorities: a nationally representative cross-sectional study |
| title_full | Mental health and help-seeking in Czech sexual minorities: a nationally representative cross-sectional study |
| title_fullStr | Mental health and help-seeking in Czech sexual minorities: a nationally representative cross-sectional study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mental health and help-seeking in Czech sexual minorities: a nationally representative cross-sectional study |
| title_short | Mental health and help-seeking in Czech sexual minorities: a nationally representative cross-sectional study |
| title_sort | mental health and help seeking in czech sexual minorities a nationally representative cross sectional study |
| topic | mental disorders population survey prevalence rate probability sample sexual minority sexual orientation suicidality treatment gap |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2045796024000210/type/journal_article |
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