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. 2016 Nov 28;11(11):e0167297.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167297. eCollection 2016.

Attitudes to Mental Illness and Its Demographic Correlates among General Population in Singapore

Qi Yuan  1 , Edimansyah Abdin  1 , Louisa Picco  1 , Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar  1 , Shazana Shahwan  1 , Anitha Jeyagurunathan  1 , Vathsala Sagayadevan  1 , Saleha Shafie  1 , Jenny Tay  1 , Siow Ann Chong  1 , Mythily Subramaniam  1
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Free PMC article

Attitudes to Mental Illness and Its Demographic Correlates among General Population in Singapore

Qi Yuan et al. PLoS One. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: Public attitudes to mental illness could influence how the public interact with, provide opportunities for, and help people with mental illness.

Aims: This study aims to explore the underlying factors of the Attitudes to Mental Illness questionnaire among the general population in Singapore and the socio-demographic correlates of each factor.

Methods: From March 2014 to April 2015, a nation-wide cross-sectional survey on mental health literacy with 3,006 participants was conducted in Singapore.

Results: Factor analysis revealed a 4-factor structure for the Attitudes to Mental Illness questionnaire among the Singapore general population, namely social distancing, tolerance/support for community care, social restrictiveness, and prejudice and misconception. Older age, male gender, lower education and socio-economic status were associated with more negative attitudes towards the mentally ill. Chinese showed more negative attitudes than Indians and Malays (except for prejudice and misconception).

Conclusions: There is a need for culture-specific interventions, and the associated factors identified in this study should be considered for future attitude campaigns.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Grants and funding

This study was funded by Ministry of Health, Health Services Research Competitive Research Grant (HSRG/0036/2013). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.