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PREVALENCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG 70‐YEAR‐OLDS DOMICILED IN NINE COPENHAGEN SUBURBS
Author(s) -
Bollerup T. Rinder
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1975.tb00012.x
Subject(s) - dementia , population , psychiatry , mental illness , medicine , personality , proband , senile dementia , personality disorders , demography , psychology , mental health , gerontology , disease , social psychology , biochemistry , chemistry , environmental health , sociology , mutation , gene
The results of a study on the prevalence of mental diseases and abnormalities among a geographically well‐defined group of 70‐year‐olds, all living in nine suburbs of Copenhagen, are submitted and discussed. The total psychiatric morbidity was found to be 15.5 %; 6.4 % suffered from psychoses, males preponderating, and 7.4 % were classified as “neuroses + personality disorders”, females preponderating. Only 15 % of the psychotic group were institutionalised. Of the entire material, 5 % were demented, and this included 1.6 % patients who were severely demented. There was a definite preponderance of males. Of the population, 2.6 % were living in their homes with senile or arteriosclerotic dementia. About 1 % of the population were looked after in their homes despite severe dementia of varying geneses. Hidden morbidity, meaning that the proband had neither been institutionalised nor had consulted a doctor for mental illness within the past 5 years, made up 15 % of the psychotic group and 19.2 % of the group “neuroses + personality disorders + alcoholism”. The total hidden morbidity constituted 2.6 % of the population or 16.5 % of the demonstrated psychiatric morbidity. The prevalence findings are on the whole on a level with those reported from other studies, most of which have been concerned with population groups over 65 years of age.