ABSTRACT
1517 women between 20 and 59 years of age were screened for current psychiatric disturbance using the General Health Questionnaire, and 382 of the subjects were also interviewed. The women gave information on a variety of family, demographic and reproductive or gynaecological items. Items concerning personal relationships with mother, husband and father were significantly associated with high scores on the GHQ as were demographic items such as marital status, numbers of children and social class and gynaecological items such as sterilization and painful, heavy or irregular periods. The many cross associations between items included in the study need to be considered when interpreting the findings. In particular the highly significant association of relationship and demographic factors with psychiatric morbidity in women must be taken into account when investigating the impact of reproductive physiology and gynaecological procedures on mental health.
Subject(s)
Mental Disorders/psychology , Adult , Data Collection , Employment , Family , Family Characteristics , Family Practice , Female , Humans , Marriage , Menopause , Menstruation Disturbances/psychology , Middle Aged , Social Class , Sterilization, Tubal/psychology , Women/psychologyABSTRACT
A survey of men aged from 20 to 59 years from a general practice list using the General Health Questionnaire and a questionnaire of social and domestic items yielded 1011 respondents. Several items were shown to be linked with psychological disturbance including ill health, ill health or psychiatric history in wife, poor relationship with wife, being unemployed, poor or divorced and lower social class. The results are compared with those of a similar sample of women.