A detailed description can be found in this LIVES working paper: https://www.centre-lives.ch/fr/bibcite/reference/51
Summary of the working paper:
Background
In Switzerland, recovery-oriented mental health research collecting non-clinical population data remains scarce. People experiencing psychological health problems (HPs) are more likely to be stigmatised than people experiencing physical HPs. Here, we present a study in which participants of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) were contacted for an auto-administered questionnaire survey in order to report on the impact that psychological or physical HPs had on their identity, their experiences of stigmatisation, subjective state of recovery as well as positive and negative consequences for various aspects of their lives. This report describes the study aims, procedure, measures, sample selection and response analyses, sample composition and health characteristics.
Methods
1426 persons were selected based on their health reports in the SHP, 713 for a psychological and 713 for a physical HP. We analysed the impact of the selection and the response process on sociodemographic characteristics and on psychosocial variables (social integration and mental health indicators). We also investigated mode (online versus paper-pencil) effects. Difference between groups were analysed using Chi-Square and t-tests.
Results
The response rate was 60.17%; 47.83% could be used for analyses. There were slight mode effects, especially regarding sociodemographic variables. Our final sample can be seen as representative of the German and French part of the Swiss population. Women, persons with high educational level, Swiss nationality and higher degrees of social trust were
overrepresented. The principal HPs reported were the most frequent and burdensome for the Swiss population, mainly depression, burnout, anxiety, orthopaedic problems, allergies and cardiac problems. Most participants had received treatment for their HP and had experienced it already for some years.
Conclusion
Using these data enables to analyse the impact of frequent and burdensome psychological and physical HPs on people’s lives in a sample that has already had some time to deal with their HPs. Future research should try to reach more socially isolated persons, persons without treatment, and specifically stigmatising illness groups.
