Mental health, family orientation, and individualism: a systematic review and meta-analysis in Iranian students
| Pages | 289-296 |
| Published date | 13 November 2017 |
| Date | 13 November 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-07-2017-0030 |
| Author | Hakimeh Mostafavi,Mohammad Hossein Ziloochi,Sajad Delavari,Satar Rezaei,Enayatollah Homaie Rad |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Social inclusion |
Mental health, family orientation, and
individualism: a systematic review and
meta-analysis in Iranian students
Hakimeh Mostafavi, Mohammad Hossein Ziloochi, Sajad Delavari, Satar Rezaei and
Enayatollah Homaie Rad
Abstract
Purpose –Mental health is one of the most important factors for evaluating the health of different agegroups
in the community. The most common forms of mental health disorders are depression and anxiety.
Health status of students as an important age group has positive consequences in the community.
To provide special recommendations for preventing mental disorders, the purpose of this paper is to
determine the correlations among the individualism and family orientation and mental health.
Design/methodology/approach –A meta-analysis was conducted to find scores of mental health.
International databases of Scopus and PubMed as well as Iranian databases of IranMedex and SID were
systematically searched in September 2014 for studies conducted on Iranian students. Of 379 reviewed
studies, 58 were selected for meta-analysis. A meta-regression model was estimated to show the effects of
individualism and family orientation on mental health.
Findings –Eight studies were conducted in Tehran. Eight studies were published in English. In nine studies,
school students, and in one study both school and university students were surveyed. General Health
Questionnaire-28 score varied from 13.77 in Arak to 47.78 in Tehran. The results of this study showed that
the pooled mental health score for Iranian students was 23.725, indicating that Iranian students had poor
mental health. In meta-regression, the coefficient of family orientation was −0.2893 and it was significant.
Other variables did not have any significant relationship with mental health scores.
Originality/value –Improvement of living conditions and enabling the youth to positively communicate with
different social groups are recommended.
Keywords Iran, Mental health, Students, Meta-analysis, Individualism, Family cohesion
Paper type General review
Introduction
Mental health is one of the most important aspects of community health. World Health
Organization (WHO) defines mental health as “[…] a state of well-being in which the individual
realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively
and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”(WHO, 2005; Maddah
et al., 2007). Mental health as something more than not having severe mental problems can
be affected by the physical, cultural, societal, and education situations (Kozier, 2008). Most
common forms of mental health disorders are the depression and anxiety (KC et al., 2010,
Mohtasham-Amiri et al., 2011). According to WHO, approximately half of the population of the
world would be affected by mental disorders by the year 2020 (Storrie et al., 2010; Noohi et al.,
2013). Also, it is predicted that mental disorders would be one of the largest contributors to the
global burden of disease by the year 2020 (Akbari et al., 2014; Yazdi Feyzabadi et al., 2015).
Individualism is one of the main causes of depression. The need of individuals and their emotional
entity are important in individualistic cultures (Fernández-Berrocal et al., 2005). According to
Franke et al. (1991) definition, “individualism pertains to societies in which the ties between
Hakimeh Mostafavi is based at
the Shahid Beheshti University of
Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mohammad Hossein Ziloochi is
based at the Department of
Health Economics and
Management, School of Public
Health, Tehran University of
Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Sajad Delavari is based at the
Shiraz University of Medical
Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Satar Rezaei is based at the
School of Public Health,
Kermanshah University of
Medical Sciences,
Kermanshah, Iran.
Enayatollah Homaie Rad is
based at the Guilan Road
Trauma Research Center,
Guilan University of Medical
Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
DOI 10.1108/MHSI-07-2017-0030 VOL. 21 NO. 5 2017, pp. 289-296, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308
j
MENTALHEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION
j
PAG E 28 9
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