ABSTRACT
Background Peru is the worst affected country by the COVID-19 pandemic showing the world highest mortality rate, thus triggering an increased mental health burden. Nevertheless, there are few population-based epidemiologic surveys of mental disorders in Peru; Therefore, nationally representative research is needed to understand the underlying population-based mental health burden and identify unmet care needs.
Objective The present study aims to estimate the prevalence and patterns of psychiatric disorders, mental health service use, and unmet mental health care needs
Methods This cross-sectional study will collect information from a multistage random sample of 19,500 households. A child, an adolescent, an adult, and an older adult will be interviewed in the household. Trained staff will conduct face-to-face diagnostic interviews via the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment, the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment, the WHO’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview, and the Alzheimer Disease 8 Scale. In addition, descriptive and inferential analysis for complex sampling will be performed to estimate the prevalence and correlates.
Ethics and dissemination IRB will approve the research protocol before the commencement of the study. Only respondents who signed their informed consents or assents will participate in the study; The parent or guardian will sign the consent for the participation of preschool children. The research findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications, scientific reports, and presentations at national, and international meetings. In addition, de-identified data and study results will be posted on the Peruvian National Institute of Mental Health (PNIMH) website to be freely available to policymakers, researchers, and the general public.
Strengths and Limitations
This will be the first national survey on mental health and services use with a large probabilistic sample size, allowing to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and service use for the rural and urban areas of each of the 25 Peruvian regions.
At the national level, this survey will have enough power to estimate the prevalence of rare psychiatric disorders with a prevalence closest to one percent.
Researchers aim to conduct a second interview among the participants after at least one year of performing the first evaluation to estimate the incidence of psychiatric disorders.
Researchers are advocating among the Peruvian Ministry of Economics and Finance officers to conduct a national survey each year to evaluate the impact of mental health policies via the analysis of trends.
The principal limitation of this study is its cross-sectional design which does not allow to infer the temporality of associations.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
This study was funded by the Peruvian Ministry of Economics and Finance
Author Declarations
I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.
Yes
The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:
Ethics committee/IRB of the Peruvian National Institute of Mental Health "Honorio Delgado - Hideyo Noguchi"
I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.
Yes
I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).
Yes
I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.
Yes
Data Availability
All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors