Mental health, well-being, and poverty: a study in urban and rural communities in Northeastern Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Nepomuceno, Bárbara Barbosa
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Cardoso, Antonio Alan Vieira, Ximenes, Verônica Morais, Barros, João Paulo Pereira, Leite, Jáder Ferreira
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC)
• Texto Completo: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/19565
• topic: Mental health; Poverty; Psychology; Well-being

This article analyzes the relations between mental health and well-being in urban and rural contexts marked by poverty. The analysis takes as its basis a quantitative research conducted with 417 adult inhabitants of two communities, one rural and the other urban, in Northeastern Brazil. The data were constructed using questionnaires composed of sociodemo-graphic data, the Personal Wellbeing Index and Self Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20) scales. We found significant differences between the inhabitants of the rural and urban communities regarding well-being and the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMD), with a higher average well-being score in the rural context; the urban sample had a higher average regarding the prevalence of CMD. The variable income significantly influenced the SRQ-20 average scores; the same was not observed with well-being scores. Besides, it was observed that there is a negative correlation with well-being and CMD.