| dc.description.abstract | Depression accounts for the largest proportion of the burden associated with all
mental health disorders and is predicted to be the second leading cause of the global
burden of disease by 2020. Despite the apparent efficacy of prevention programmes,
international rates of help-seeking for depression remain poor. Cognitive theories of
help-seeking and empirical studies suggest that help-seeking for health conditions is
largely determined by beliefs about the condition (e.g., likelihood and severity of the
condition) as well as beliefs about help-seeking itself (e.g., how easy and beneficial it
would be to get help). An understanding of the role of health beliefs in help-seeking
for depression will hopefully close the gap between the number of people eligible for
depression treatment and the number of people actually receiving it. A systematic
review of literature was conducted to identify studies that examined the relationship
between health beliefs and help-seeking for depression using the highest quality
study design, i.e., experimental trial or prospective cohort. Six electronic databases
were searched and a manual search of the reference lists of the included studies
was conducted. Ten studies with a total of 7,878 participants were included in the
review. In line with theories of health behaviour, what participants believed about
depression and about preventive health action was related to whether they sought
help; however, the association between beliefs and help-seeking varied across
studies. Methodological issues and overall low study quality point to the need for
high quality studies with clearly defined constructs and reliable and valid variable
measurements. The findings of this review suggest that beliefs about depression are
important targets for interventions aimed at improving rates of help-seeking for the
illness. | en_GB |
