Meta-Analysis: Prevalence of Youth Mental Disorders in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Youth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face limited access to professional mental health resources. A comprehensive assessment of the prevalence of mental disorders would build an understanding of the scope of the need. We conducted systematic searches in PsycInfo, Pubmed, AfriBib and Africa Journals Online to identify prevalence rates for five disorders (anxiety, depression, conduct disorder, attention problems and post-traumatic stress) among SSA youth with a mean age of less than 19 years.

Adolescent and youth-friendly health interventions in low-income and middle-income countries: a scoping review.

Background: Adolescents comprise one-sixth of the world's population, yet there is no clear understanding of the features that promote adolescent-friendly services (AFS). The lack of clarity and consistency around a definition presents a gap in health services.

Methods: The review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines.

Testing the Shamiri Intervention and Its Components With Kenyan Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Outcomes of a Universal, 5-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Mental health problems are prevalent among African adolescents, but professional treatment capacity is limited. Shamiri, an efficient lay provider-delivered intervention, has significantly reduced depression and anxiety symptoms in previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs). This trial investigated effects of the full Shamiri intervention and its components (growth-only, gratitude-only, and values-only) against a study skills control.

An arts-literacy intervention for adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms: outcomes of a randomised controlled trial of Pre-Texts with Kenyan adolescents.

Background: Mental health problems are prevalent among youth in low-resource countries and are further compounded by stigma and limited access to traditional treatments. The need for scalable, accessible, and stigma-free mental health interventions is urgent. We developed and tested Pre-Texts, an arts-literacy intervention that targets adolescent depression and anxiety, in Kenya.

Using wearable activity trackers for research in the global south: Lessons learned from adolescent psychotherapy research in Kenya.

Wearable activity trackers have emerged as valuable tools for health research, providing high-resolution data on measures such as physical activity. While most research on these devices has been conducted in high-income countries, there is growing interest in their use in the global south. This perspective discusses the challenges faced and strategies employed when using wearable activity trackers to test the effects of a school-based intervention for depression and anxiety among Kenyan youth.

Psychometric properties of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II among Kenyan adolescents.

Introduction: Curiosity is a fundamental trait that drives exploration, motivation, learning, and growth. However, research on this character strength in sub-Saharan African populations is very scarce. To address this gap in the literature, we sought to determine the psychometric properties of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory- II (CEI-II), a measure for trait curiosity, to provide evidence of validity for its use in research among populations in sub-Saharan Africa.

Group-based psychoeducational workshop for parents in Kenya: findings from a pilot study.

Introduction: Low levels of mental health literacy amongst parents can have negative effects on youth mental wellbeing and help-seeking behaviors. Here, we explored the impact of a brief psychoeducational workshop on improving parent mental health literacy and family relationships in Kibera, a low-resource high-risk setting in Nairobi, Kenya.

Methods: The workshop was designed to address this issue, and it was delivered by trained facilitators to small groups of parents ( = 72).

Testing pathways to scale: study protocol for a three-arm randomized controlled trial of a centralized and a decentralized ("Train the Trainers") dissemination of a mental health program for Kenyan adolescents.

Background: Providing care in Kenya to all youth in need is difficult because of a shortage of professional providers and societal stigma. Previous trials of the Anansi model, which involves delivering low-touch mental health interventions through a tiered caregiving model (including lay-providers, supervisors, and clinical experts), have shown its effectiveness for reducing depression and anxiety symptoms in school-going Kenyan adolescents. In this trial, we aim to assess two different scale-up strategies by comparing centralized implementation (i.

Costs and cost-effectiveness of Shamiri, a brief, layperson-delivered intervention for Kenyan adolescents: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the highest socio-economic burden of mental health disorders, yet the fewest resources for treatment. Recently, many intervention strategies, including the use of brief, scalable interventions, have emerged as ways of reducing the mental health treatment gap in LMICs. But how do decision makers prioritize and optimize the allocation of limited resources? One approach is through the evaluation of delivery costs alongside intervention effectiveness of various types of interventions.

Lessons learned from conducting mental health intervention research in schools in the global south: Our experiences in South Africa and Kenya.

Most of the world's population of young people live in lower-and middle-income countries (LMICs; (Weine, Horvath Marques, Singh, & Pringle, 2020)), and these young people experience heightened rates of known risk factors for developing mental disorders such as poverty and exposure to trauma (Atwoli, Stein, Koenen, & McLaughlin, 2015). Access to professional psychological treatments is limited in LMICs due to structural barriers (e.g.

A dataset of the mental health and wellbeing of Kenyan adolescents.

This article presents data on the mental health and wellbeing of 2,192 Kenyan adolescents collected using self-reported questionnaires administered at four secondary schools in Nairobi and Kiambu counties. The data was collected using a range of validated scales to access for depression (PHQ-8), anxiety (GAD-7), gratitude (GQ-6), social support (MSPSS), perceived control (PCS), happiness and optimism (EPOCH). Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and R, and results are reported in terms of frequencies and percentages of responses.

The network approach: A path to decolonize mental health care.

The violent colonial history of psychiatry in Africa prevents individuals from help-seeking. Because of this history, mental health care is now stigmatized, and clinical research, practice, and policy fail to capture the salient features of distress across African communities. If we are to transform mental health care for all, we must adopt decolonizing frameworks to ensure mental health research, practice, and policy are enacted in a manner that is ethical, democratic, critical, and serves the needs of local communities.

Students stress patterns in a Kenyan socio-cultural and economic context: toward a public health intervention.

This study aimed at determining the prevalence of stress, different types of stress, their severity and their determinants in Kenyan university, college and high school students. The following tools were administered to 9741 students: (1) Researcher-designed socio-demographic tool, (2) Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) for psychiatric disorders, (3) WERC Stress Screen for stress, (4) Washington Early Recognition Center Affectivity and Psychosis (WERCAP) screen for psychosis and affectivity, (5) Wealth Index Questionnaire for economic indicators. Descriptive analysis for the prevalence of different types of stress and inferential analysis for stress and independent variables were done.

Depression and anxiety symptoms amongst kenyan adolescents: Psychometric Properties, Prevalence Rates and Associations with Psychosocial Wellbeing and Sociodemographic factors.

This study assessed the psychometric properties of standard Western-derived instruments, the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms, and their associations with sociodemographic and wellbeing variables in a large sample of Kenyan adolescents. Self-report measures of depression (PHQ-8) and anxiety (GAD-7) symptoms, social support, gratitude, happiness, optimism, and perceived control were administered to 2,192 Kenyan youths (57.57% female) aged 12-19.

Long-term health outcomes of adolescent character strength interventions: 3- to 4-year outcomes of three randomized controlled trials of the Shamiri program.

Background: Adolescents in low- and middle-income countries in need of mental health care often do not receive it due to stigma, cost, and lack of mental health professionals. Culturally appropriate, brief, and low-cost interventions delivered by lay-providers can help overcome these barriers and appear effective at reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety until several months post-intervention. However, little is known about whether these interventions may have long-term effects on health, mental health, social, or academic outcomes.

Loneliness in Kenyan adolescents: Socio-cultural factors and network association with depression and anxiety symptoms.

Loneliness is associated with negative mental health outcomes and is particularly common among adolescents. Yet, little is known about the dynamics of adolescent loneliness in non-Western, low-income nations. Accordingly, we estimated the severity of loneliness in a sample of Kenyan adolescents and used mixed-effects regression modelling to determine the socio-cultural factors associated with loneliness.

Prevalence and perception of substance abuse and associated economic indicators and mental health disorders in a large cohort of Kenyan students: towards integrated public health approach and clinical management.

Background: The earlier younger people begin to use drugs, the more vulnerable they become to both their short term and long-term harmful effects. The overall aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse, the socio-demographic characteristic, perception of abuse and associated economic indicators and mental disorders and how they inform potential intervention in a cohort of Kenyan students.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on a total of 9742 high school, college and university students.