(ECNS) - China’s first blue paper on mental health showed about 3 percent of people in the world’s most populated country suffer from serious mental disorders.
The report by the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences was based on a general survey of 14,798 valid questionnaires among people aged 10 to 100 in 39 cities during 2007 and 2008 and another undertaken in 2011 and 2012. The report also included results from three surveys on mental health service requirements from 2007 to 2017 among the general public, disabled persons and professionals in the science and technology sectors.
The report showed residents who suffer from “very bad” and “quite bad” mental disorders accounted for 2.6 percent and 18.3 percent respectively in rural areas, and 2 percent and 13.8 percent in urban areas.
In the more specific group of civil servants, the report said those surveyed suffered from a higher level of anxiety, depression and stress, some 5 percent, 5.5 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively. The percentages could reach 35.2 percent, 33.2 percent and 52.2 percent if more minor mental stress symptoms were included. Civil servants aged 26 to 44 were found to face the biggest stress and had the least satisfaction with work, a situation that improved as they became older.
In public perceptions, 48 percent of respondents said there are serious mental health problems in society and only 12 percent said the opposite.
Fu Xiaolan, editor-in-chief of the report and also director of the institute, said the accelerated pace of life and work in the Internet era means more physical and psychological stress on residents. Generally speaking, mental health is increasingly an issue in China, Fu noted.
