| Literature DB >> 24670011 |
Conor Farrington1, Angela Aristidou, Kai Ruggeri.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Two phenomena have become increasingly visible over the past decade: the significant global burden of disease arising from mental illness and the rapid acceleration of mobile phone usage in poorer countries. Mental ill-health accounts for a significant proportion of global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and years lived with disability (YLDs), especially in poorer countries where a number of factors combine to exacerbate issues of undertreatment. Yet poorer countries have also witnessed significant investments in, and dramatic expansions of, mobile coverage and usage over the past decade. DEBATE: The conjunction of high levels of mental illness and high levels of mobile phone usage in poorer countries highlights the potential for "mH(2)" interventions--i.e. mHealth (mobile technology-based) mental health interventions--to tackle global mental health challenges. However, global mental health movements and initiatives have yet to engage fully with this potential, partly because of scepticism towards technological solutions in general and partly because existing mH(2) projects in mental health have often taken place in a fragmented, narrowly-focused, and small-scale manner. We argue for a deeper and more sustained engagement with mobile phone technology in the global mental health context, and outline the possible shape of an integrated mH(2) platform for the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of mental health.Entities:
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Year: 2014 PMID: 24670011 PMCID: PMC3986901 DOI: 10.1186/1744-8603-10-17
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Global Health ISSN: 1744-8603 Impact factor: 4.185
Mental health DALYs and mental health spending by WHO income group
| Low | 19 999 | 0.2 |
| Lower-Middle | 69 653 | 0.59 |
| Upper-Middle | 69 609 | 3.76 |
| High | 40 234 | 44.84 |
*2004 figures from World Health Organization [4].
**2011 figures from World Health Organization Mental Health Atlas [5].
Mental health human resources per 100,000 population by WHO income group in 2011
| Low | 0.05 | 0.02 | 0.42 | 0.01 |
| Lower-middle | 0.54 | 0.14 | 2.93 | 0.13 |
| Upper-middle | 2.03 | 1.47 | 9.72 | 0.76 |
| High | 8.59 | 3.79 | 29.15 | 2.16 |
Source: World Health Organization Mental Health Atlas [5].
Mental health DALYs, mobile phone subscriptions, and growth in mobile phone subscriptions by United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UNMDG) groups
| Developed Regions | 40 715 | 1 522.33 | 10.15 |
| All regions other than Developed Regions | 159 730.85 | 4 735.94 | 46.29**** |
| Northern Africa | 4 334 | 195.94 | 36.64 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 20 849 | 537.83 | 53.89 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 20 926 | 657.7 | 27.64 |
| Caucasus and Central Asia | 2 403 | 84.43 | 48.18 |
| Eastern Asia | 39 196 | 1 158.7 | 34.81 |
| Southern Asia | 50 200 | 1 196.03 | 75.07 |
| South-eastern Asia | 15 998 | 684.62 | 49.35 |
| Western Asia | 5 603 | 216.56 | 41.3 |
| Oceania | 221.85 | 4.13 | 49.7 |
*2004 figures from WHO [4].
**2012 figures from World Bank, which defines mobile phone subscriptions as follows: ‘subscriptions to a public mobile telephone service using cellular technology, which provide access to the public switched telephone network. Post-paid and prepaid subscriptions are included [21]’.
***Average of growth of mobile subscriptions in constituent countries in each grouping; not weighted by population. See Additional file 1 for statistics for mental health DALYs and mobile subscriptions (2008–2012) by UNMDG group and individual country (figures from WHO and World Bank [4,21]).
****Average of growth across non-developed region UNMDG groups; not weighted by population size or number of constituent countries in each group.