Training primary health care workers in mental health and its impact on diagnoses of common mental disorders in primary care of a developing country, Malawi: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundMental health problems are common in primary care, with prevalence rates of up to 40% reported in developing countries. The study aim was to evaluate the impact of a specially designed toolkit used to train primary health care (PHC) workers in mental health on the rates of diagnosed cases...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological Medicine Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 657 - 667
Main Authors: Kauye, F., Jenkins, R., Rahman, A.
Format: research tables/charts randomized controlled trial Journal Article
Published: Cambridge University Press Feb2014
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=104131786&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ccm
    uiTerm: 104131786
    longDbName: CINAHL Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    dissinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        00332917
        6Q3
      jtl: Psychological Medicine
      issn: 00332917
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Feb2014
      vid: 44
      iid: 3
      pid: 15979
      pub: Cambridge University Press
    artinfo:
      ui:
        104131786
        93450687
        10.1017/S0033291713001141
        NLM23721658
        104131786
      ppf: 657
      ppct: 10
      formats:
      tig:
        atl: Training primary health care workers in mental health and its impact on diagnoses of common mental disorders in primary care of a developing country, Malawi: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.
      aug:
        au:
          Kauye, F.
          Jenkins, R.
          Rahman, A.
        affil: College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi
      sug:
        subj:
          Health Personnel Education
          Primary Health Care
          Mental Disorders Diagnosis
          Human
          Malawi
          Randomized Controlled Trials
          Mental Health
          Outpatient Service
          Questionnaires
          Interview Guides
          Mental Disorders Epidemiology
          Depression Epidemiology
          Prevalence
          Pretest-Posttest Design
          Anxiety
          Odds Ratio
          Confidence Intervals
          Malaria Diagnosis
          Cross Sectional Studies
          Surveys
          Semi-Structured Interview
          Sample Size
          Data Analysis Software
          Regression
          Sensitivity and Specificity
          Male
          Female
          Descriptive Statistics
          Adult
          Funding Source
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Male
          Female
      ab: BackgroundMental health problems are common in primary care, with prevalence rates of up to 40% reported in developing countries. The study aim was to evaluate the impact of a specially designed toolkit used to train primary health care (PHC) workers in mental health on the rates of diagnosed cases of common mental disorders, malaria and non-specific musculoskeletal pains in primary care in Malawi.MethodClinics with out-patient services in the designated district were randomly divided into control and intervention arms. Using a two-phase sampling process, Self-Reporting Questionnaire scores, data on diagnoses made by PHC workers and results of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV for depression were collected from 837 consecutively attending adult patients in the pre-intervention study and 2600 patients in the post-intervention study.ResultsThe point prevalence rates for probable common mental disorder and depression were 28.8% and 19%, respectively. Rates for both anxiety and depression diagnoses by PHC workers at baseline were 0% in both arms. Following training, there were significant differences between the two arms in the rates of diagnosed cases of depression [9.2% v. 0.5%, odds ratio (OR) 32.1, 95% confidence interval (CI) 7.4–144.3, p ⩽ 0.001], anxiety (1.2% v. 0%, p ⩽ 0.001) and malaria (31% v. 40%, OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.43–0.89, p = 0.01). The intervention arm had more cases diagnosed with depression and anxiety while the control arm had more cases diagnosed with malaria.ConclusionsTraining of PHC workers in mental health with an appropriate toolkit will contribute significantly to the quality of detection and management of patients seen in primary care in developing countries.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        randomized controlled trial
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
    refInfo:
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N