Mental distress, perceived need, and barriers to receive professional mental health care among university students in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: There is limited evidence on the extent of the perceived need and barriers to professional mental health service delivery to university students with mental distress in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study was designed to assess the prevalence of mental distress, perceived need for professional mental health care and barriers to the delivery of services to affected undergraduate university students in Ethiopia. METHODS: A multi-stage sampling technique was used to recruit 1135 undergraduate university students. Symptoms of mental distress were evaluated using the Self-Reported Questionnaire (SRQ-20) and a score of above seven was used to identify positive cases. The perceived need for professional mental health care was assessed using a single ‘yes or no’ response item and barriers to mental health care were assessed using Barriers to Access to Care Evaluation (BACE-30) tool. Percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation were employed to summarize demographic characteristics of the participants and to identify common barriers to mental health care service. Moreover, the association of demographic variables with total mean scores of BACE-III sub-scales was modeled using multiple linear regression. RESULTS: The prevalence of mental distress symptoms was 34.6% and the perceived need for professional mental health care was 70.5% of those with mental distress. The top five barriers to receiving professional mental health service were (a) thinking the problem would get better with no intervention, (b) being unsure where to go to get professional help, (c) wanting to solve the problem without intervention, (d) denying a mental health problem existed, and (e) preferring to get alternative forms of mental care. Coming from a rural background, being a second and fourth-year student, and a family history of mental illness were significantly associated with barriers to receive professional mental health service. CONCLUSION: The high prevalence of mental distress, the paucity of mental health care, and the report of barriers to access what professional mental health care there is among Ethiopian undergraduate students is a call to address the disparity.