Gender disparities in mental health status among the school-going adolescents of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Islam, Nazrul, Khan, Nazmul Ahsan, Ahsan, Gias Uddin and Saifuddin, Kazi (2010) Gender disparities in mental health status among the school-going adolescents of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science, 16 (2), 151-158.

Abstract

This paper aims to explore gender disparities in the mental health status among the school-going adolescents of Dhaka, Bangladesh. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted involving 600 subjects randomly selected from 3 types of schools of Dhaka City – boys’ Bengali medium, girls’ Bengali medium and co-ed English medium. The study reveals that there is significant gender disparity in the mental health status among the adolescents aged between 13 and 19 years. While the overall prevalence of mental health disorder was 10.0%, females have shown a higher proportion of mental health disorder with a prevalence of 13.0% compared to 7.4% in males. 76.2% (n = 246) of all male participants and 62.5% (n = 173) of all female participants were mentally healthy (normal), with a further 16.4% (n = 53) of all males and 24.5% (n = 68) of all female participants were in the borderline category. Further analysis to estimate the odds ratio (OR) found that the proportion of mentally abnormal cases in female was significantly higher than that of the male participants with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.13 (95% CI: 1.23, 3.70; Chi-square value = 7.471, p-value: 0.006). Since the findings clearly show that there is gender disparity in the prevalence of mental health disorders, the strategies to prevent mental disorders effectively and to reduce the risk factors associated must not be gender-neutral. Based on the study findings, we recommend developing an appropriate gender strategy with appropriate operational framework considering socio-demographic parameters including political and legislative commitments and involving community participation aimed at addressing the issues contributing to the development of mental health disorders thus enabling us intervene rationally with a view to build a mentally sound youth generation, hence a healthy nation

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Contributors

Author: Nazrul Islam

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