title: Normality, deviance and minor psychiatric morbidity in the community. A population-based approach to General Health Questionnaire data in the Health and Lifestyle Survey.
abstract: This paper investigates factors affecting the distribution of psychiatric morbidity in the community. It identifies a close relationship between mean Chronic General Health Questionnaire (CGHQ) scores in subdivisions of a large random sample of the community (the Health and Lifestyle Survey, N = 6317) and the prevalence in these groups of abnormal, above-threshold CGHQ scores. The frequency distributions of CGHQ scores in these different populations move up and down as a whole: like other physiological and behavioural attributes, these mental health outcomes in individuals are associated with characteristics of the populations in which they arise. Populations thus carry a collective responsibility for their own mental health and well-being. This implies that explanations for the differing prevalence rates of psychiatric morbidity must be sought in the characteristics of their parent populations; and control measures are unlikely to succeed if they do not involve population-wide changes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Huppert
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rose
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology