Open AccessNational Mental Health Survey of India, 2016 - Rationale, design and methods
Author(s) -
Pradeep Banandur,
Gopalkrishna Gururaj,
Mathew Varghese,
Vivek Benegal,
Girish N Rao,
Gautham Melur Sukumar,
Senthil Amudhan,
Banavaram Anniappan Arvind,
Satish Chandra Girimaji,
Kandavel Thennarasu,
P Marimuthu,
Kommu John Vijayasagar,
Binukumar Bhaskarapillai,
Jagadisha Thirthalli,
Santosh Loganathan,
Nitish Kumar,
Paulomi M. Sudhir,
Veena A. Sathyanarayana,
Kangkan Pathak,
Lokesh Kumar Singh,
Ritambhara Mehta,
Daya Ram,
T. M. Shibukumar,
Arun Kokane,
Raj Kumar Singh,
BS Chavan,
Pradeep Sharma,
Chellamuthu Ramasubramanian,
Pronob Kumar Dalal,
Pradeep Kumar Saha,
Sonia P. Deuri,
A. Giri,
Abhay Kavishvar,
Vinod Kumar Sinha,
Jayakrishnan Thavody,
Rajni Chatterji,
Brogen Singh Akoijam,
Subhash Das,
Amita Kashyap,
Renuka Sathish,
M. Selvi,
Shweta Singh,
Vivek Agarwal,
Raghunath Misra
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0205096
Subject(s) - mental health , survey research , medicine , environmental health , psychology , psychiatry , applied psychology
Understanding the burden and pattern of mental disorders as well as mapping the existing resources for delivery of mental health services in India, has been a felt need over decades. Recognizing this necessity, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, commissioned the National Mental Health Survey (NMHS) in the year 2014–15. The NMHS aimed to estimate the prevalence and burden of mental health disorders in India and identify current treatment gaps, existing patterns of health-care seeking, service utilization patterns, along with an understanding of the impact and disability due to these disorders. This paper describes the design, steps and the methodology adopted for phase 1 of the NMHS conducted in India. The NMHS phase 1 covered a representative population of 39,532 from 12 states across 6 regions of India, namely, the states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh (North); Tamil Nadu and Kerala (South); Jharkhand and West Bengal (East); Rajasthan and Gujarat (West); Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (Central) and Assam and Manipur (North East). The NMHS of India (2015–16) is a unique representative survey which adopted a uniform and standardized methodology which sought to overcome limitations of previous surveys. It employed a multi-stage, stratified, random cluster sampling technique, with random selection of clusters based on Probability Proportionate to Size. It was expected that the findings from the NMHS 2015–16 would reveal the burden of mental disorders, the magnitude of the treatment gap, existing challenges and prevailing barriers in the mental-health delivery systems in the country at a single point in time. It is hoped that the results of NMHS will provide the evidence to strengthen and implement mental health policies and programs in the near future and provide the rationale to enhance investment in mental health care in India. It is also hoped that the NMHS will provide a framework for conducting similar population based surveys on mental health and other public health problems in low and middle-income countries.