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A community study of mental disorders among four aboriginal groups in Taiwan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Tai Ann Cheng*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University and Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
Mutsu Hsu
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University and Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr T. A. Cheng, Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University, I, Chang-Te Street, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.

Synopsis

In this paper background, objectives, methodology and a few preliminary findings of a comparative epidemiological study of mental disorders among four aboriginal groups in Taiwan are presented. The study includes both a cross-sectional sample survey (N = 993) and prospective cohort studies involving psychoses, minor psychiatric morbidity, alcoholism, suicide, and accidental death. The total response rate to the sample survey was 98·3%; respondents were found to be representative. A preliminary analysis found very high rates of death from suicide, accidents and chronic liver and lung disease with a previous history of alcoholism in many of these deaths. Implications of these findings and studies of risk factors of all these health problems and their relationships are discussed.

Type
Preliminary Communication
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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