The Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Common Mental Disorder among Hong Kong Chinese / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and common mental disorder (CMD).Methods:A random sampling of household telephone numbers was obtained from 1995 residential telephone directories.A subject from each eligible household was selected according to the Kish method.The target population comprised noninstitutionalized Chinese residents in Hong Kong ages 18 to 65 years.A structure question- naire was used to measure some SES characteristics (age,gender,marriage,education,job,family income,house type,and house area),and Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) was used to evaluate their CMD.Results:A total of 9851 subjects (71.7%) were included in the final analysis.According to the cutoff (≥5) of SRQ,3358 subjects (34.2%) suffered from CMD.Totally,subjects with lower SES had more chances to suffer from CMD.After control- ling confounding factors,stable marriage (OR=0.763,0.697-0.835),higher education (OR=0.766,0.708- 0.830),and larger house (OR=0.906,0.849-0.968) were important factors for reduction of CMD.Conclusion: The mental health of general population is closely linked with SES,especially marriage,education,and house.