Page 28 - nhms 2012 Putrajaya

W.P. PUTRAJAYA GSHS 2012 Results

3.6 Mental Health Problems

Introduction

Worldwide, approximately 20% of children and adolescents su\er from a disabling mental illness (47).
Anxiety disorders, depression and other mood disorders, behavioural and cognitive disorders are
among the most common mental health problems among adolescents (48). Half of all life time cases
of mental disorders start by the age of 14 years. In Malaysia, the National Health and Morbidity Survey
2011 reported that prevalence of mental health problems among children and adolescent less than
16 years was 20.0% as compared to 19.4% in 2006 (49, 50). In every country and culture, there are
children and adolescents who struggle with mental health problems.These young people are at high
risk of delinquent behaviour, substance abuse, school failure, violent and criminal activities. Mental
health problems among schoolchildren may lead to mental illness in adulthood. Suicide is the third
leading cause of death among adolescents and worldwide, about 4 million adolescents attempt
suicide each year (51, 52).

Findings

In the past 12 months, 9.3% (95% CI: 7.83-10.91) of the students had felt lonely most of the time or
always with signi^cantly more females [11.5% (95% CI: 9.14-14.28)] than males [6.4% (95% CI: 5.07-
7.98)] a\ected (Table 6.1). Overall, 5.0% (95% CI: 3.88-6.37) were unable to sleep at night due to
worry most of the time or always (Table 6.2). The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 5.9% (95% CI:
4.65-7.34) (Table 6.3). About 3.9% (95% CI: 3.15 4.92) had suicidal plan (Table 6.4), and 4.3% (95% CI
3.32-5.64) had reported attempted suicide (Table 6.5). Overall, 2.1% (95% CI: 1.50-2.81) of the students
had no close friend at all (Table 6.6).

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