Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Psychiatry (Pei, Vigo) and School of Population and Public Health (Pei, Vigo, Puyat), University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Department of Clinical, Neuro-, and Developmental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Amanvermez, Cuijpers); Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston (Kessler); Health Services Research Unit, Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain, and Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Madrid (Mortier); Center for Public Health Psychiatry, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (Bruffaerts); Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Rankin); Relate Mental Health Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, and School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Chua); Centro de Medicina Reproductiva y Desarrollo Integral del Adolescente, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, and Millennium Nucleus to Improve the Mental Health of Adolescents and Youths, Santiago, Chile (Martínez); Department of Psychological Medicine (Rapsey) and Department of Psychology (Garcia), University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (Fodor, David, Cuijpers)
Psychiatr Serv, 2024 Jan 31.
PMID: 38291886 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ps.20230414

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: College students have high rates of mental health problems and low rates of treatment. Although sociodemographic disparities in student mental health treatment seeking have been reported, findings have not been synthesized and quantified. The extent to which differences in perceived need for treatment contribute to overall disparities remains unclear.

METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed, PsycInfo, and Embase was conducted. Studies published between 2007 and 2022 were included if they reported treatment rates among college students with mental health problems, stratified by sex, gender, race-ethnicity, sexual orientation, student type, student year, or student status. Random-effects models were used to calculate pooled prevalence ratios (PRs) of having a perceived need for treatment and of receiving treatment for each sociodemographic subgroup.

RESULTS: Twenty-one studies qualified for inclusion. Among students experiencing mental health problems, consistent and significant sociodemographic differences were identified in perceived need for treatment and treatment receipt. Students from racial-ethnic minority groups (in particular, Asian students [PR=0.49]) and international students (PR=0.63) reported lower rates of treatment receipt than White students and domestic students, respectively. Students identifying as female (sex) or as women (gender) (combined PR=1.33) reported higher rates of treatment receipt than students identifying as male or as men. Differences in perceived need appeared to contribute to some disparities; in particular, students identifying as male or as men reported considerably lower rates of perceived need than students identifying as female or as women.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the need for policy makers to address barriers throughout the treatment-seeking pathway and to tailor efforts to student subgroups to reduce treatment disparities.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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