Peckham, E. orcid.org/0000-0002-9377-1968, Lorimer, B. orcid.org/0000-0003-1395-7613, Spanakis, P. orcid.org/0000-0002-2732-8300 et al. (4 more authors) (2023) Health-risk behaviours among people with severe mental ill health: understanding modifiable risk in the Closing the Gap Health Study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 222 (4). pp. 160-166. ISSN 0007-1250
Abstract
Background People with severe mental ill health (SMI) experience some of the largest health inequalities of any sector within society. For these inequalities to be reduced, an understanding of the behavioural determinants of health in this population is needed.
Aims Utilising data from the Closing the Gap Health Study, we aimed to assess the extent to which people with SMI report health-risk factors and behaviours, their interest in modifying them, and the factors associated with being motivated to modify these behaviours.
Method Adult (≥18 years old) participants were recruited via primary and secondary care in the English National Health Service. To be eligible, participants needed to have a documented diagnosis of schizophrenia, psychotic disorders or bipolar disorder. Data were collected by survey on demographics, general physical health, diet, physical activity, alcohol, smoking and body mass index.
Results Between April 2016 and March 2020, n = 9914 participants were recruited. Among people with SMI, high rates of obesity (37.5%), infrequent physical activity (62.0%), not meeting current guidelines (≥5) for the consumption of fruit and vegetables (85.0%) and smoking (42.2%) were observed. However, most participants were motivated to reduce health-risk behaviours. Perceiving the importance of health-promoting behaviours, being of poorer general health and being female were significantly associated with being motivated to modify health-risk behaviours.
Conclusions Despite experiencing poor physical and mental health outcomes compared with the general population, and contrary to popular misconceptions, people with SMI perceive health as important and are motivated to make behavioural changes to improve health.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Severe mental ill health; bipolar disorder; health risk behaviours; psychosis; schizophrenia; Adult; Humans; Female; Adolescent; Male; State Medicine; Mental Health; Psychotic Disorders; Bipolar Disorder; Risk-Taking; Mental Disorders |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Aug 2024 14:40 |
Last Modified: | 09 Aug 2024 14:40 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Royal College of Psychiatrists |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1192/bjp.2022.143 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:215723 |