Predictors of need and use of services
Independent predictors of need for contact with mental health services
and actual use were examined using binary logistic regression. Fourteen
independent variables were entered into the equation: sex (male=1,
female=2), age (18-65), education (1=primary school, 4=university),
employment (0=not employed or working from home, 1=employed and goes to
work), marital status (0=not married, 1= married), location (0=from
Ankara, 1=from outside Ankara), past hospitalization (0=no, 1=yes),
accessible doctor/psychologist (0=no, 1=yes), worsening of symptoms
(0=no, 1=yes), additional symptoms (0=no, 1=yes), had been PCR positive
(0=no, 1=yes), PGI (1-7), COVID-19 Anxiety Score (0-24), and diagnostic
group (0=SCZ, 1=BPD, 2=MDD, 3=ANX/OCD); the SCZ group was chosen as the
reference group.
Table 2 shows the predictors of need for mental health services (Column
1), and actual use of services (Column 2). The predictors of the need
for contact with mental health services were PGI score (self-reported
severity of own symptoms), accessibility of a doctor/psychologist, and
belonging to BPD, MDD, or ANX/OCD groups (higher need compared to the
SCZ group). None of the demographic variables or COVID-19-related
variables were predictive of the need for contact.
The same set of predictor variables were regressed onto actual use of
mental health services. The predictors of actual use (Column 2) were:
accessibility of a doctor/psychologist and belonging to MDD or ANX/OCD
groups (lower services use compared to the SCZ group).