ArticleBMC health services research2025
Utilization of mental health services and associated factors among residents of southern Ethiopia; a community based cross-sectional study.
Article in BMC health services research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn 2019, nearly one billion individuals worldwide were estimated to be living with some form of mental illness. This staggering figure underscores not only the widespread prevalence of mental health issues but also their significant negative impact. Despite the critical impact of mental health problems, there is a substantial gap in treatment at the global scale. Particularly in rural Ethiopia, there is a notable lack of data regarding the use of mental health services by community residents. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the utilization of mental health services and identifying factors that influence access to these services among the population of rural southern Ethiopia.
methodsA community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected adults in southern Ethiopia. A semi-structured questionnaire assessing the sociodemographic status of the participants was used. Depression and anxiety were measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the General Anxiety Disorders Scale (GAD-7), respectively. The data were then analyzed using StataMP version 18. Statistical tests such as frequency, percentage, mean, bivariate logistic regression, and multivariate analysis were performed. P values and confidence intervals were used to determine statistical significance.
resultsA total of 971 participants were enrolled in this study, and the mean age was 34.9 (± 11) years. A minority of the participants (152 [15.5%]) sought some form of help for mental health-related reasons. Only 24 (2.5%) of the participants used biomedical mental health services. The perceived need for any mental health service was 96 (9.9%). Thirty-three percent of the respondents with mild to moderate depression and 37.1% of those with severe depression sought care for their concerns. Similarly, 37% and 35% of individuals with mild to moderate anxiety and severe anxiety, respectively, utilized mental health services. A higher monthly income, psychoactive substance use, perceived need, and symptoms of depression and anxiety were significantly associated with mental health service utilization.
conclusionOur study revealed a significantly low level of utilization of mental health services among the residents of rural southern Ethiopia. More efforts to address the treatment gap for mental health problems in the country are needed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.