Mental health and sociodemographic characteristics among Icelanders, data from a cross-sectional study in Iceland.

BACKGROUND: Mental health challenges are on the rise worldwide. In Iceland, little is known about the sociodemographic factors associated with poor mental health. This study aimed to investigate symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and psychiatric medication for mental disorders in a nationally representative sample in Iceland and to explore its associations with sociodemographic factors. METHODS: This Icelandic cross-sectional study 'Health and Wellbeing of Icelanders' was conducted in 2017 and included 9,887 randomly chosen adults. Participants' depression, anxiety, and stress levels were measured with the Depression Anxiety and Stress scale-21(DASS-21) and the association with sociodemographic factors and prescribed psychiatric medication was assessed in a multinominal logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The youngest age group (18 to 29 years old) had the poorest mental health. Males had a higher risk of medium and high depression scores than females, RRR 1.23 (95% CI 1.06-1.44) and RRR 1.71 (95% CI 1.25-2.33) when adjusted for sociodemographic factors (age, sex, education, marital status, financial status, living area, employment) and use of psychiatric medication. Participants with the most considerable financial difficulties had the highest risk of high scores on depression RRR 11.19 (95% CI 5.8-21.57), anxiety RRR 12.35 (95% CI 5.62-27.14) and stress RRR 11.55 (95% CI 4.75-28.04) when compared to those that do not. CONCLUSIONS: The youngest participants and those with the most extensive financial difficulties had the highest depression, anxiety, and stress scores. Males scored higher than females on depression. There was a trend towards worse mental health with lower sociodemographic status. Higher education, living with someone, and financial security were associated with better mental health. These results implicate the importance of government actions to counteract social inequalities in the Icelandic nation.

UPRIGHT, a resilience-based intervention to promote mental well-being in schools: study rationale and methodology for a European randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is crucial period for laying the foundations for healthy development and mental well-being. The increasing prevalence of mental disorders amongst adolescents makes promotion of mental well-being and prevention interventions at schools important. UPRIGHT (Universal Preventive Resilience Intervention Globally implemented in schools to improve and promote mental Health for Teenagers) is designed as a whole school approach (school community, students and families) to promote a culture of mental well-being and prevent mental disorders by enhancing resilience capacities. The present article aims at describing the rationale, conceptual framework, as well as methodology of implementation and evaluation of the UPRIGHT intervention. METHODS: UPRIGHT project is a research and innovation project funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No. 754919 (Duration: 48 months). The theoretical framework has been developed by an innovative and multidisciplinary approach using a co-creation process inside the UPRIGHT Consortium (involving seven institutions from Spain, Italy, Poland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland). Resulted is the UPRIGHT programme with 18 skills related to 4 components: Mindfulness, Coping, Efficacy and Social and Emotional Learning. Among the five Pan-European regions, 34 schools have been currently involved (17 control; 17 intervention) and around 6000 adolescents and their families are foreseen to participate along a 3-year period of evaluation. Effectiveness of the intervention will be evaluated as a randomized controlled trial including quantitative and qualitative analysis in the five Pan-European regions representative of the cultural and socioeconomic diversity. The cost-effectiveness assessment will be performed by simulation modelling methods. DISCUSSION: We expect a short- to medium-term improvement of mental well-being in adolescents by enhancing resilience capacities. The study may provide robust evidence on intrapersonal, familiar and social environmental resilience factors promoting positive mental well-being. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03951376 . Registered 15 May 2019.