Comparing physical and mental health literacy.

Background: This study attempted to ascertain whether people had better mental vs physical health literacy by comparing their knowledge of six conditions.

Aims: The aim was to link two different literatures which have remained apart.

Methods: In all, 186 young British participants (52% male) with an average age of 25 years completed an online questionnaire describing six vignettes characters. Three described mental health conditions (anorexia, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia) and three physical health conditions (asthma, diabetes and osteoarthritis). Participants were required to name the illness and rate how treatable and manageable they believed the condition is. They were also asked to rate how much the problem would affect an individual's daily life and suggest whether the individual should seek professional help.

Results: The recognition of specific mental health conditions (anorexia, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia) was marginally higher than the recognition of physical health conditions (arthritis, asthma, diabetes). Ratings about treatment and the effect of each illness showed considerable variation.

Conclusion: The results suggest that people are equally and relatively poorly informed about relatively common mental compared to physical illnesses.