ARCH Lab PhD student, Shannon Reaume, has recently published a paper based on her dissertation work titled “An Epidemiological Study of Physical-Mental Multimorbidity in Youth” in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

This epidemiological study estimated the lifetime prevalence of chronic physical illness (i.e., an illness that lasted or was expected to last ≥6 months) and 6-month prevalence of mental disorder and multimorbidity (i.e., ≥1 physical illness and ≥1 mental disorder) in 10,303 youth aged 4-17 years using data from the 2014 Ontario Child Health Study (OCHS).

Main findings of the study are as follows:

• Approximately 28% of Ontario children aged 4-17 live with a chronic physical illness, placing them at increased risk of developing mental illness.
• 14.8% of children have a mental illness.
• 5.4% of children have physical-mental multimorbidity.
• Having 2 physical illnesses increases the odds of having any mental illness, mood, and anxiety illnesses.
• Better overall functioning is protective against mental illness, hence interventions need to address functional limitations of physical illnesses and promote strong overall functional health.