Are the individuals of the country able to self-report mental health problems?

Content Editor: Dr Tanya Tanu

February 2, 2024 at 1:30:00 PM

Mental Health, Universal Health Coverage

A study conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, based on the 75th Round National Sample Survey (NSS), 2017-18, reported that self-reporting rates for mental health problems in India were less than 1 percent.
The NSS data was collected from randomly selected 8077 rural and 6181 urban areas bearing 555,115 individuals.
It included 283 outpatient and 374 hospitalization cases due to mental disorders in India.
The secondary data analysis conducted by IIT Jodhpur based on the mental health parameters extracted from the NSS data has the following main findings:

Self-reporting of mental disorders is 1.73 times higher among the richest as compared to the poorest in India
Only 23 % of the patients hospitalized for mental disorders had health insurance coverage at the national level.
The private sector is the major mental health provider, accounting for 66.1 % of outpatient care and 59.2 % of inpatient care.
The average out-of-pocket expenditure for hospitalization and outpatient care was significantly higher in the private sector than in the public sector.

The findings emphasize the importance of understanding the local sociodemographic context while designing strategies to reduce the disease burden of mental disorders.