Mental distress in the general population in Zambia: Impact of HIV and social factors

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Observed Symptoms of Mental Distress by Sex, Residence and HIV status

	Rural								Urban
	Male (n = 818)				Female (n = 1050)				Male (n = 1042)				Female (n = 1540)
Symptom		neg%	pos%			neg%	pos%			neg%	pos%			neg%	pos%
	Total%	n = 712	n = 106	p	Total%	n = 902	n = 148	p	Total%	n = 911	n = 131	p	Total%	n = 1206	n = 334	P
Sleep badly	13.6	12.8	17.9	0.15	15.7	14.4	23.6	0.00	11.5	10.1	21.4	0.00	16.2	14.6	21.9	0.00
Cry more	3.1	2.9	3.8	0.65	8.4	7.8	12.8	0.04	3.4	3.2	4.6	0.41	10.7	10.0	13.5	0.06
Difficulty enjoying life	15.8	14.7	23.6	0.02	14.4	13.7	18.9	0.10	19.4	19.7	17.6	0.57	18.9	17.4	24.0	0.01
Difficulty deciding	20.2	20.2	20.8	0.90	14.5	14.2	16.2	0.52	23.1	23.8	18.3	0.16	27.3	25.5	33.9	0.00
Daily life suffering	20.0	19.0	27.4	0.04	18.3	17.7	21.6	0.26	14.0	13.4	18.3	0.13	15.0	12.8	22.8	0.00
Unable to play useful part in life	11.4	11.2	13.2	0.55	10.7	10.2	13.5	0.23	9.9	9.1	15.3	0.03	10.3	9.6	12.9	0.08
Thoughts of suicide	2.0	2.2	0.9	0.38	5.1	4.5	8.1	0.07	5.2	5.3	4.6	0.74	8.1	7.8	9.3	0.38
Tired all the time	13.3	12.4	19.8	0.04	12.0	11.0	18.2	0.01	7.7	6.8	13.7	0.01	11.8	10.8	15.6	0.02
Headache often	18.2	17.0	27.4	0.01	23.8	24.1	21.6	0.51	17.3	17.4	16.8	0.87	27.6	27.3	28.4	0.69
Poor Digestion	14.3	13.1	22.9	0.01	8.6	8.2	10.8	0.30	7.0	6.7	9.2	0.30	6.2	5.3	9.3	0.01
Mental distress*	13.6	12.9	18.1	0.15	15.4	14.3	21.6	0.02	11.5	11.1	13.7	0.38	15.4	13.0	24.1	0.00
Positve Negative ratio:		1	1.40			1	1.51			1	1.23			1	1.85

* Mental distress cut off 7/20 questions given weights and arbitrary cut off point set from literature based on the DSM IV criterion for depression

ISSN: 1471-2458