Study: Mental health correlates with life satisfaction
07.02.2014 16:33
Mental health is the factor with the greatest influence on life satisfaction. This is followed by physical health, income and unemployment. This is the conclusion reached by a working group led by economist Richard Layard from the Center for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
According to scientists, mental illnesses are the cause of up to 20 percent of incapacity to work. However, even in rich countries, only less than a third of those affected are receiving treatment. “Cost-effective treatment of depression and anxiety disorders is now possible – with cure rates of at least 50 percent,” says Layard. Nevertheless, hardly any government spends more than 15 percent of its health budget on the treatment of mental illnesses.
“Priorities in the distribution of resources within the healthcare system need to be revised. We have to improve the care and research of mental illnesses,” demands the chairman of the central association ZNS (SPiZ), Dr. Frank Bergman.
According to the economist Layard and his colleagues, the low expenditure of resources compared to those with physical illnesses is discriminatory for those with mental illnesses and is also economically unreasonable. If more mentally ill people were adequately treated, the state could save costs on social spending and would lose less tax revenue due to incapacity. Layard: “In rich countries, it would probably be possible to treat those affected by mental illnesses at a cost that would cover the state coffers.”
The SPiZ agrees: “Discrimination is an individual problem for those affected and an economic problem for society. Specifically, what would be necessary is: better regional networking and appropriate remuneration for speaking medicine,” says Bergmann.
Layard used data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), the largest and longest-running multidisciplinary long-term study as part of the research infrastructure in Germany. Since 1984, a survey institute has surveyed several thousand people every year. In addition to the German data, the scientists also evaluated data from long-term studies from Australia and Great Britain. The data from all respondents over the age of 25 were included in the study. Layard defined “unhappy” as the 25 percent of respondents who gave the lowest satisfaction ratings on scales.
source
Layard R et al.: Mental illness and unhappiness
SOEP — The German Socio-Economic Panel Study at DIW Berlin 600-2013
www.bdn.de