title: Mental health service use among older Canadians with anxiety and comorbid physical conditions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to understand the relationship between mental health service use and comorbid any anxiety and commonly occurring physical conditions (i.e., arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and gastrointestinal disease) in a national sample of older Canadians.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample consisted of older adults aged 55 years and older from the Canadian Community Health Survey 1.2 (N = 12,792). Trained lay interviewers assessed mental disorders based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criteria. Physical conditions were based on self-reported diagnoses by health professionals. Past-year mental health service use was categorized into whether services were utilized in the general or specialty sectors. Crosstabulations and multiple logistic regressions examined the effects of both anxiety and physical conditions on mental health service use within the general and specialty mental health sectors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adjusted logistic regressions indicated that there was no effect of anxiety among older adults with gastrointestinal disease on mental health service use. Conversely, in adjusted regressions, having a comorbid anxiety disorder with cardiovascular disease or arthritis was associated with increased odds of service use from the general sector in comparison to cardiovascular disease and arthritis, respectively, alone. Additionally, older adults with comorbid any anxiety disorder and gastrointestinal disease in comparison to anxiety alone had lower rates of seeking mental health services; however, these effects were no longer significant in an adjusted model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comorbidity between gastrointestinal conditions and anxiety was associated with unmet mental health service needs. This may be conceptualized in the context overlapping symptomatology in gastrointestinal conditions and anxiety.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Manitoba , Winnipeg , Canada.
authors.forename: Renée
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: El-Gabalawy
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Manitoba , Winnipeg , Canada.
authors.forename: Corey S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Mackenzie
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Manitoba , Winnipeg , Canada.|b Department of Psychiatry , University of Manitoba , Winnipeg , Canada.|c Department of Community Health Sciences , University of Manitoba , Winnipeg , Canada.
authors.forename: Jitender
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sareen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: anxiety disorders; comorbidity; epidemiology; mental health service use; older adults