Care seeking behavior of people with common mental disorders in São Paulo-Brazil

BACKGROUND: Mental health in developing countries is a keen area for improvements. Epidemiological research in this field helps to reinforce information, generate hypothesis and guide police makers. This study intends to analyze patterns of care seeking among cases of common mental disorders (CMD) in São Paulo city in 2015. METHODS: The data is from the population-based survey ISA-Capital 2015 and the screening for common mental disorders follows the Self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ-20). The study analyses care seeking according to sociodemographic and health conditions. RESULTS: The prevalence of CMD was 19.7% (95% CI 18.2–21.4%). There was a higher prevalence of CMD among who sought care in last 30 days (25.4%). Among CMD cases, care seeking presented significant different prevalence ratio (PR) for: women (PR 1.13; 95% CI 1.05–1.2); age 60 years or more (PR 1.13; 95% CI 1.05–1.22) and 30–44 years (PR 1.10; 95% CI 1.01–1.2); brown skin (PR 0.92; 95% CI 0.86–0.97); single or divorced (PR 0.93; 95% CI 0.89–0.99); unemployed (PR 1.06; 95% CI 1.01–1.12); last 15 days referred morbidity (PR 1.3; 95% CI 1.2–1.34); physical disability (PR 1.11; 95% CI 1.06–1.18); and chronic disease (PR 1.15; 95% CI 1.07–1.24). CONCLUSION: Identifying vulnerable groups and developing proper public health actions is important to promote equity accessibility. Analysing care seeking behavior among people with CMD is a strong contribution.