Knowledge Of Mental Health And Mental Illnesses Among Community Members In Bungoma County, Kenya

Objective. The objective of the study was to determine the knowledge of mental health and mental illness by the community in Bungoma county Kenya. Design. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study and Quantitative methods were adopted. Setting. The study was carried out in Bungoma County Sample. Five Sub-Counties in Bungoma County were purposively sampled to increase the representation. The household’s heads were sampled by stratified sampling; the researcher divided the population into strata and drew a predetermined number using simple random sampling (n = 396) Analysis. Data wasanalyzed through descriptive statistics, chi-square test of independence and logistic regression. Main outcome measures. Knowledge of mental health and mental illness Results. 67.7% (268) disagreed that mental illness is an illness like any other. 60.6% (240) disagreed that one of the main causes of mental illness is lack of self-discipline and will power. Majority of the respondents 292 (73.7%) agreed that, if people become mentally ill, they would easily become ill again. Of the 396 respondents, 300 (75.8%) of respondents agreed that people with mental illness have a lower intelligent quotient. Chi square analysis showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the knowledge of mental illness and gender X2 (1, N=369) =0.22. Logistic regression was done and respondents who were single were 0.4 times more likely (OR=0.42, 95% C.I, 0.06-2.84) to belong to the ‘poor knowledge ’group than the ‘good knowledge’ group compared to the widowed Conclusion. That sensitization of the community/ public on mental illnesses is important. Scaling up public awareness campaigns to reach more people by diversifying the approaches targeting specific group of family members having mentally ill persons.