Attitude towards Mental Illness among General Public: A Descriptive Survey

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “it is estimated that globally 450 million people suffer from mental disorders”. Among Indian population, the estimated prevalence of mental disorders is found to be 5.8%. The objectives of the present study were to assess the quality of attitude towards mental illness and to identify the association between the selected sociodemographic variables and the quality of attitude. Total sample size was 30. Convenient sampling technique was used. A sociodemographic tool and an attitude scale of Likert type which consisted of 20 items constructed by the investigator was used. Mean score of attitude of the general public was 57.43, which represents the neutral attitude with standard deviation of 13.441. The present study showed that only 10% of the general public possessed the negative attitude and 43% had neutral attitude.

Keywords: Attitude, opinion, public, mental illness, survey