Prevalence and Correlates of Nonpsychotic Psychiatric Symptoms in the General Population

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a large scale mail questionnaire survey of the prevalence, as well as some social/psychological correlates, of nonpsychotic psychiatric symptoms in the general population of the Province of Saskatchewan. The level of nonpsychotic psychiatric symptoms was measured using the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) developed by Goldberg. The respondent group (2000+, 53% of the available sample) was reasonably representative of the provincial population and forms a good basis for generalization. Data analysis shows that women report a higher level of symptoms than men. There were also significant age variations:for women there was a general decline in mean scores from younger to older age categories with the possible exception of the oldest age group, over 70, in which we see a slight increase; for men, there was a pronounced U-shaped distribution with both younger and older age groups exhibiting high levels of symptomatology. In addition to age and sex, general health, relationships with spouse and others, and a sense of control over one's life experiences were found to be correlated with symptom reporting, underscoring the negative effects of ill health and the inequities in social systems as well as the positive value of good interpersonal relationships. Saskatchewan symptom reporting levels were found to be similar to those reported in Australian and British population samples. These other studies also showed higher levels of symptom reporting infernales than in males. The GHQ data were also factor analyzed to reveal sets or clusters of symptoms. The analysis showed that “anxiety” and “depression” were the major dimensions of the GHQ lending credence to the suggestion that psychiatric screening scales tend to measure “de-morale-ization,” that is, anxiety, sadness, helplessness/hopelessness and a lack of self-esteem.