title: A community study of minor psychiatric morbidity in Taiwan.
abstract: A community study of minor psychiatric morbidity (MPM) was carried out on three population samples aged 15 and above randomly selected from rural (Yenpu), suburban (Chishan), and urban (Kaohsiung) communities (N = 350 for each) in Taiwan. A two-stage case finding strategy was applied with a newly developed and validated screening questionnaire (CHQ), and a modified Chinese version of the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-CV). The total response rate was 99.4% and there was no time lag between the CHQ screening and the second stage clinical interview conducted by a psychiatrist. The weighted validity of the CHQ was found to be acceptable (sensitivity 69.6%, specificity 94.8%, misclassification rate 11.4%). The overall weighted prevalence rate was 18.0% for men and 33.3% for women. Both the CIS and the CHQ data are used as the morbidity indices to investigate the sociodemographic risk factors of MPM. A higher risk of MPM, which occupied 92% of the total morbidity, was found to be associated with women aged 35 and above, the unemployed men, and the lower socioeconomic status after linear modelling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, ROC.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013624:Taiwan