Quality of diabetes care among patients with schizophrenia. A mixed-methods study

Mortality in Qatari individuals with mental illness: a retrospective cohort study

INTRODUCTION

There is substantial evidence that people with mental illness have higher mortality rates than the general population. However, most of the studies were from Western countries, and it is not clear whether this finding also applies to Arab countries like Qatar.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to explore whether mortality in patients with mental illness in Qatar, is different from those without.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective cohort study, including all Qatari nationals deceased in 2017 and 2018, using the list of registered deaths from Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) Mortuary. We divided the cohort of deceased people into two groups: with and without mental illness. For each of the groups, we collected the age at death, the reported cause of death as well as sociodemographic and clinical data.

RESULTS

There were 602 registered deaths in 2017 and 589 deaths in 2018. The prevalence of mental illness was 20.4%. Compared to subjects without mental illness, subjects with mental illness surprisingly had higher age at death (median ± IQR = 76.5 ± 22.1 years vs. 62.7 ± 32.9 years; p < .001). This difference persisted even after we controlled for covariates. Individuals with mental illness were more likely to die of an infection (OR = 1.98[1.44;2.71]), or of chronic respiratory disease (OR = 3.53 [1.66;7.52]) but less likely to die because of accidental (OR = 0.21[0.09;0.49]) or congenital causes (OR = 0.18[0.04;0.77]).

CONCLUSION

Contrary to most previous studies, we did not find that mortality was higher in Qatari individuals with mental illness. Sociocultural factors, free and easy-to-access healthcare, and an enhanced role of mental health professionals in detecting medical comorbidities may explain this finding.

Stigmatization and discrimination towards human immunodeficiency virus seropositive patients in psychiatric and mental health facilities

Stigmatization and discriminatory attitudes of nurses towards human immunodeficiency (HIV) patients have been reported in many countries. The current study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitudes and factors associated with stigmatizing attitudes and discrimination among psychiatric and mental health nurses and nurse interns towards patients diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus; utilizing a single-centre hospital-based survey design. Primary data were collected using a previously validated questionnaire in a large mental health care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Knowledge, attitudes, acts of discrimination and associated factors on the part of mental health nurses towards those diagnosed with the HIV were identified. The study described herein is in accordance with the STROBE guideline. A total of 241 psychiatric and mental health nurses completed the questionnaire, yielding a completion rate of 74.4%. Overall, more than half of the nurses demonstrated gaps in knowledge and reported higher stigmatizing attitudes and acts of discrimination. Factors associated with stigmatization and/or discrimination include higher exposure to seropositive patients, no formal HIV training, lower religiousness, lower awareness of HIV testing policy and lower level of knowledge about HIV infection. There is an urgent need to implement a training program that will help to reduce stigma among nurses caring for people diagnosed with this illness.