Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the contribution of mental comorbidity to role impairment among college students.
Methods: Web-based self-report surveys from 14,348 first-year college students (Response Rate [RR] = 45.5%): 19 universities, eight countries of the World Mental Health International College Student Initiative. We assessed impairment (Sheehan Disability Scales and number of days out of role [DOR] in the past 30 days) and seven 12-month DSM-IV disorders. We defined six multivariate mental disorder classes using latent class analysis (LCA). We simulated population attributable risk proportions (PARPs) of impairment.
Results: Highest prevalence of role impairment was highest among the 1.9% of students in the LCA class with very high comorbidity and bipolar disorder (C1): 78.3% of them had severe role impairment (vs. 20.8%, total sample). Impairment was lower in two other comorbid classes (C2 and C3) and successively lower in the rest. A similar monotonic pattern was found for DOR. Both LCA classes and some mental disorders (major depression and panic, in particular) were significant predictors of role impairment. PARP analyses suggest that eliminating all mental disorders might reduce severe role impairment by 64.6% and DOR by 44.3%.
Conclusions: Comorbid mental disorders account for a substantial part of role impairment in college students.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e1750 |
| Pages (from-to) | e1750 |
| Journal | International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 20 Jan 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Prof. SIU Oi-ling is one of the WHO WMH-ICS CollaboratorsFunding
Funding to support this initiative was received from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R56MH109566 (R. P. A.), and the content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or NIMH; the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (11N0514N/11N0516N/1114717N; P. M.), the King Baudouin Foundation (2014-J2140150-102905; R. B.), and Eli Lilly (IIT-H6U-BX-I002; R. B. and P. M.); BARMER, a health care insurance company, for project StudiCare (DDE); ZonMw (Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development; Grant 636110005) and the PFGV (PFGV; Protestants Fonds voor de Geestelijke Volksgezondheid) in support of the student survey project (PC); South African Medical Research Council and the Ithemba Foundation (DJS); Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria, Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FEDER (PI13/00343), ISCIII (Río Hortega, CM14/00125), ISCIII (Sara Borrell, CD12/00440), Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, PNSD (Exp. 2015I015); DIUE Generalitat de Catalunya (2017 SGR 452), FPU (FPU15/05728); Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria, Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FEDER (PI13/00506); European Union Regional Development Fund (ERDF) EU Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Public Health Agency (HSC R&D), and Ulster University (TB); Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) Grant CB-2016-01-285548 (C. B.). The WMH-ICS Initiative is carried out as part of the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative. The WMH survey is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health NIMH R01MH070884, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Pfizer Foundation, the US Public Health Service (R13-MH066849, R01-MH069864, and R01 DA016558), the Fogarty International Center (FIRCA R03-TW006481), the Pan American Health Organization, Eli Lilly and Company, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, GlaxoSmithKline, and Bristol-Myers Squibb (RCK). None of the funders had any role in the design, analysis, interpretation of results, or preparation of this paper.
Keywords
- college students
- disability
- role impairment
