Prevalence of mental health disorders among health care providers in the Psychiatric Hospital, Bahrain

The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of mental health disorders morbidity among health care providers in the Psychiatric Hospital, Bahrain. Two hundred and sixty one health care providers were investigated using the English-language version of the General Health Questionnaire-28 items (GHQ-28) as a research tool. One hundred and fifty three persons responded to the survey, which was a 59% effective response rate. Selecting the suggested default score of 4 points in GHQ-28 as a cut-off point, 41% of health care providers were found to suffer mental disorders and this was more common among non-Bahraini, male nurses. The prevalence dropped to 38% at 5 points threshold, 32% at 6 points threshold, 18% at 9 points threshold and finally 9% at 11 points threshold. Chi square was used to compare the frequency distribution of the GHQ-28 scores according to gender, nationality and professional background, but the results showed no statistically significant differences between the groups. It is concluded that psychiatric morbidity among health care providers could be considered high in the Psychiatric Hospital, Bahrain if the cut-off scores were the default 4 points; however, the rates could be very well within international reported rates if the cut-off scores were set 9 points or higher.