Mental health awareness among adult attendees of Armed Forces Hospital Southern Region family and community center.

Aim Of Study: To assess mental health literacy among Saudi adults attending the Ahad Rufaidah extension of Armed Forces Hospitals, Southern Region, 2017.

Methodology: Following a cross-sectional descriptive study design, 400 adult Saudi attendants of the Armed Forces Hospitals, Southern Region - Ahad Rufaidah extension were included in this study. An anonymous interview validated questionnaire was utilized for data collection. It included variables related to participants' personal characteristics, knowledge assessment, and attitude regarding mental illness.

Results: More than half of participants (55.3%) had poor knowledge regarding mental health, while 44.8% had satisfactory knowledge. Only 3.6% of participants had a positive attitude toward mentally ill persons, 43% were indifferent toward them, while 53.4% had a negative attitude toward them. Participants' attitudes toward mental health differed significantly according to their knowledge grades ( < 0.001), with the majority of those with positive attitudes having satisfactory knowledge (93.5%) and most of those who had negative attitudes had poor knowledge (66.8%). Participants' knowledge grades differed significantly according to their gender, with more satisfactory knowledge grades among males than females (50.8% and 22.4%, respectively, < 0.001) and educational level, with more satisfactory knowledge grades among more educated participants ( = 0.002). Participants' attitudes toward mentally ill persons differed significantly according to their gender ( = 0.013) and their educational level, with the highest percentage of positive attitude among university-educated participants (35.3%, < 0.001).

Conclusions: There is widespread mental health illiteracy among attendants in the Ahad Rufaidah extension of Armed Forces Hospitals, Southern Region. Their attitude toward mentally ill persons is rarely positive but largely negative or indifferent.