Psychiatric morbidity in an urban slum of Mumbai: cross sectional study

Objective: To find out prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in urban slum community in Mumbai.

Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study was conducted in a health post area of Dharavi, a large slum in Asia. Systematic random sampling was employed to select households, the sampling unit in this study. All individuals aged 15 and above were eligible to participate in the study. Individuals willing to participate were interviewed with symptoms checklist - 90 for identifying those with psychiatric illness. All individuals identified with a psychiatric disorder on the basis of the symptoms check list were invited for a clinical interview conducted by a psychiatrist. Univariate and multi-variate analysis was carried out with help of SPSS.

Results: The prevalence of psychiatric conditions was found to be 12.5%, much higher compared to previous studies. Affective disorders were the most common accounting for 42.7% of the total morbidity, followed by anxiety disorders (30.7%) and psychoses (21.3%). The adjusted odds ratios for psychiatric disorder were significantly higher for illiterates and those with primary education only (2.4), unemployed (2.1) and those with family history of a psychiatric disorder (1.9).

Conclusions: The high prevalence of psychiatric morbidity calls for primary psychiatric services to be made available to all and integrated with the primary health care. Family members of psychiatric patients constitute high risk group that needs attention in form of screening, care and treatment, if necessary.