Days out of role due to common physical and mental conditions in Portugal: results from the WHO World Mental Health Survey

BACKGROUND One important aspect of the societal burden of mental disorders is the extent to which these problems cause disability. AIMS To assess days out of role associated with commonly occurring mental disorders in comparison with physical disorders in Portugal. METHOD National cross-sectional survey, with home interviews carried out with 3849 adult (aged 18+) respondents (57.3% response rate). RESULTS Twelve-month prevalence for any mental disorder was 21.8%, any physical disorder 55.1% and any disorder 63.1%, with an average of 2.3 disorders per respondent with a disorder. Close to one out of every 10 respondents (9.2%) reported at least one day totally out of role in the past month (median of 6.4 days/any). The 18 conditions accounted for 78.2% of all days out of role, with 20.2% because of mental disorders and 59.2% because of physical disorders. CONCLUSIONS Mental disorders account for a substantial proportion of all role disability in the Portuguese population. Early detection and intervention would have a positive societal effect. Owing to highly frequent comorbidity, simultaneous management of mental and physical disorder comorbidities is advised for greater effect. DECLARATION OF INTEREST R.C.K. in the past 3 years has been a consultant for Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Johnson & Johnson's Wellness and Prevention, Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis Groupe. He has served on advisory boards for Mensante Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc., Lake Nona Life Project and U.S. Preventive Medicine, Inc. He is a co-owner of DataStat, Inc. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2017. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license.