Most Europeans say that mental and physical health conditions are equally serious – but don’t think their fellow countrymen agree
Ensuring that mental health problems receive “parity of esteem” with physical health issues has been a major campaign in healthcare across the world for some time.
Now a new YouGov EuroTrack study shows that most people in seven European countries surveyed – Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden – personally believe that mental health problems and physical health problems are equally serious, with Britons the most likely of all to say so, at 76%.
However, when asked what they think their nation’s society thinks, the most common belief in each country is that physical health issues are seen as a bigger deal than mental health ones, ranging from 36% in France to 59% in Denmark and the UK.
Around three in ten people in Spain, Germany, France and Italy believe their societies regard both afflictions as equally important (28-31%), while fewer than one in five do so in Britain and the two Nordic nations surveyed (18-19%).
Only 7-14% in each country think that their society takes mental health problems more seriously.
Britons only country where more see physical health as a bigger issue than mental health
While only a minority consider one set of health issues to be generally more serious than the other, Britain is notable for being the only country where more people see physical health problems as more serious than mental health problems (15% vs 6%).
By contrast, in Spain people are three times as likely to see mental health issues (21%) as a bigger problem than physical heath issues (7%). Similar numbers in Germany, France, Italy and Sweden (17-20%) likewise say mental health conditions are more serious than their physical counterparts (9-12%).
Most people across Europe take common mental health problems seriously
Of course, not all health conditions are the same, so we asked Europeans to tell us how serious they consider a selection of mental health problems to be. This allows us to see how seriously each are perceived to be in their own right, and how this compares to other mental health issues – as well as how this compares against a range of physical health problems.
Each mental health problem asked about was seen as at least a “fairly serious” problem by a majority of people in each country surveyed. This includes 80-89% for depression and 60-79% for anxiety – by far the two most common mental health problems that people suffer from.
The number of people saying each mental health condition is serious sits comfortably within the range of those for saying the same about a selection of physical health conditions, further suggesting that the majority of Europeans accept the premise that mental health conditions can be as serious as physical conditions.
How do you feel about how seriously mental health issues are taken, the provision of mental health care nationally, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty