Mental health literacy of ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder: a cross-cultural investigation

Abstract

Background

Mental health literacy (MHL) is linked to help-seeking behaviours. Although lay people are not always well aware of mental health conditions, few international campaigns and interventions have been developed to raise awareness across cultures.

Aims

To investigate MHL cross-culturally and to identify factors that are associated with MHL.

Method

Using an online survey, 506 participants (103 Greek, 108 UK, 146 USA, 149 other nationality) read and labelled five vignettes of individuals with Autism, ADHD, Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder and a healthy control. Factors influencing response, confidence and accuracy were compared across all participants, and the effect of various demographics on accurate labelling was compared between countries.

Results

Recognition rates were higher than in previous investigations: 75.5% of participants recognised the Healthy vignette, 71.1% ADHD, 61.7% Autism, 56.6% Schizophrenia and 31.6% Bipolar. MHL varied across different countries, with religion, language spoken, and education having the greatest effects. Personal experience of mental illness partially affected MHL.

Conclusions

MHL is relatively high for some mental health conditions, but public knowledge of other conditions is still poor. Factors influencing MHL vary across countries.

Keywords:

• Mental health
• mental health literacy
• cross-cultural
• ADHD
• autism
• schizophrenia
• bipolar disorder

Acknowledgements

The authors record their appreciation to [removed for review] for her assistance in the questionnaire’s translation into Greek and her unconditional support throughout this process.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by UCL Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology Ethics Board. Project ID No: CEHP/EP/2016/0004. Informed consent was obtained from all participants before beginning the study.

Author contributions

FV conceived of the study, collected data, and drafted the manuscript. FV and LH designed the study and conducted analyses. FV, LH, and KVP revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Availability of data and material

The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.