Cross-sectional survey of mental health literacy among undergraduate students of the University of Nigeria

What is it about?

Mental Health Literacy has been defined as the knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention. Mental health literacy and social rejection studies are particularly important as they suggest that inaccurate recognition and false beliefs about schizophrenia raise social distance toward those suffering from this disorder. It is especially important among university students as research has shown than about one-third of university students suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder, and 64% of individuals who dropped out of the university did so because of a mental disorder. Also, attitudes towards diseases such as mental illness are often cemented during this formative time of development. Our study sought to assess mental health literacy of undergraduate students in terms of their ability to correctly label schizophrenia, recognize symptoms and their preferred source of help.
Mental health literacy among the students surveyed was poor. Our study fills the literature gap on mental health literacy in developing countries and highlights the need for culturally sensitive interventions to improve mental health literacy in this population.


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