Mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from a large-scale population-based study in Israel

Examining the mental health services among people with mental disorders: a literature review

BACKGROUND

Mental disorders are a significant contributor to disease burden. However, there is a large treatment gap for common mental disorders worldwide. This systematic review summarizes the factors associated with mental health service use.

METHODS

PubMed, Scopus, and the Web of Science were searched for articles describing the predictors of and barriers to mental health service use among people with mental disorders from January 2012 to August 2023. The initial search yielded 3230 articles, 2366 remained after removing duplicates, and 237 studies remained after the title and abstract screening. In total, 40 studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

RESULTS

Middle-aged participants, females, Caucasian ethnicity, and higher household income were more likely to access mental health services. The use of services was also associated with the severity of mental symptoms. The association between employment, marital status, and mental health services was inconclusive due to limited studies. High financial costs, lack of transportation, and scarcity of mental health services were structural factors found to be associated with lower rates of mental health service use. Attitudinal barriers, mental health stigma, and cultural beliefs also contributed to the lower rates of mental health service use.

CONCLUSION

This systematic review found that several socio-demographic characteristics were strongly associated with using mental health services. Policymakers and those providing mental health services can use this information to better understand and respond to inequalities in mental health service use and improve access to mental health treatment.

Association between the healthy eating index and anxiety among Chinese elderly: A population-based cross-sectional study

Introduction

Given that few studies have examined the relationship between healthy eating and anxiety in older adults, this study aimed to assess the relationship between the healthy eating index and anxiety in an older adult population using the Chinese Longevity Health Survey (CLHLS).

Methods

A national cross-sectional study from the CLHLS in 2018. The healthy eating index was constructed based on the frequency of intake of 13 dietary variables. Anxiety was assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale. We used multivariate binary logistic regression to explore the association between the healthy eating index and anxiety and reported as odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI).

Results

A total of 13,873 older adults were included in the analysis after excluding participants with missing key variables. After adjusting for potential confounders, compared with participants in the lowest quartile of a healthy eating index, those in the second to the fourth quartile group had 4.7 %, 20.7 %, and 28.4 % lower odds of anxiety compared with those in the first quartile, respectively. Restricted cubic spline curves showed that anxiety risk decreased with increasing healthy eating index, and for each unit increase in the healthy eating index, the risk of anxiety in older adults decreased by 2.3 % (OR = 0.977; 95 % CI 0.970-0.985).

Discussion

In Chinese older adults, a healthy diet was associated with lower anxiety. Although prospective studies are still needed to confirm these associations in older populations, this result emphasizes the need to focus on dietary diversity in older adults to promote healthy aging.