Abstract
This study examines the prevalence of comorbid physical health conditions within a community sample of individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), compares them to a matched national sample without SMI, and identifies which comorbidities create the greatest disease burden for those with SMI. Self-reported health status, co-morbid medical conditions and perceived disease burden were collected from 203 adults with SMI. Prevalence of chronic health conditions was compared to a propensity-matched sample without SMI from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication (NCS-R). Compared to NCS-R sample without SMI, our sample with SMI had a higher prevalence of seven out of nine categories of chronic health conditions. Chronic pain and headaches, as well as the number of chronic conditions, were associated with increased disease burden for individuals with SMI. Further investigation of possible interventions, including effective pain management, is needed to improve the health status of this population.
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Notes
Random selection was employed to ensure that potential participants would not be included in or excluded from participating in this study on the basis of psychological functioning, service utilization history, standing at the CMHC (beyond being an active client) or any other demographic factor. The methodological benefit of drawing the sample directly from the mental health services board, as opposed to drawing it directly from the CMHC, is that CMHC administrators and staff were not involved in the selection of potential study participants.
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Northeast Ohio Medical University Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (Christian Ritter, PI) to establish the Research Focus Area in Community-based Mental Health Research. The authors would like to acknowledge Mark Munetz, MD, for his consultation and advice throughout this project and preparation of the manuscript. We also would like to thank Zhenyu Jia, PhD, and James Meeker, MA, for their assistance with data analysis.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Baughman, K.R., Bonfine, N., Dugan, S.E. et al. Disease Burden Among Individuals with Severe Mental Illness in a Community Setting. Community Ment Health J 52, 424–432 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9973-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9973-2