Public Knowledge and Attitude Towards Mental Illness And Mentally Challenging People In Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2011

Background: Despite the increased burden of mental health problems, little is known about community knowledge and attitude towards mental illness and mentally challenging individuals.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, and associated factors towards mental illness

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted on 864 residents of Gondar town on April 2011. Study participants were selected by using the multi-stage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression were utilized for analysis by using SPSS version 16.

Results: A total of 864 participants with a response rate of 97.8% took part.  Median age was 30.5years. About 562(65%) of the respondents with 95 %CI interval (61.4%, 66.3%) had good knowledge of mental illness. The majority, 757(87.4%), (CI 86.2% -89.7%), had unfavourable attitude towards mental illness and mentally ill people. In the multivariate analysis, youth and information on mass media were positively related to knowledge about mental illness with the odds ratio of [AOR=1.91,95% CI(1.20-3.05)] and [AOR=1.39,95% CI(1.03-1.88)], respectively. People aged between 35 and 44 years had good knowledge and favourable attitude towards mental illness with the odds ratio of [AOR=2.5, 95% CI(1.17-5.71)] and [AOR=1.94,95% CI(1.14-3.29)]

Conclusion: More than half of the respondents had good knowledge about mental illness. The attitude of the community towards mental illness and mentally challenging individuals was significantly unfavourable. Getting information from health institutions and young age were significantly associated with good knowledge. Being young and having good knowledge were found to have significant association with the attitude of the community towards mental illness and mentally challenging individuals.