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. 2023 Apr 4;23:226. doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-04605-2

Table 1.

WMH sample characteristics by World Bank income categoriesaCountry

Surveyb Sample characteristicsc Field dates Age range Sample size Response rated
Part I Part II
I. Low and Middle-income countries
 Brazil – São Paulo São Paulo Megacity São Paulo metropolitan area 2005–8 18–93 5037 2942 81.3
 Colombia NSMH All urban areas of the country (approximately 73% of the total national population). 2003 18–65 4426 2381 87.7
 Colombia – Medellín MMHHS Medellin metropolitan area 2011–12 19–65 3261 1673 97.2
 Lebanon LEBANON Nationally representative. 2002–3 18–94 2857 1031 70.0
 Mexico M-NCS All urban areas of the country (approximately 75% of the total national population). 2001–2 18–65 5782 2362 76.6
 Nigeria NSMHW 21 of the 36 states in the country, representing 57% of the national population. The surveys were conducted in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Efik languages. 2002–4 18–100 6752 2143 79.3
 Romania RMHS Nationally representative. 2005–6 18–96 2357 2357 70.9
Total (30472) (14889) 80.1
II. High-income countries
 Argentina AMHES Eight largest urban areas of the country (approximately 50% of the total national population) 2015 18–98 3927 2116 77.3
 Belgium ESEMeD Nationally representative. The sample was selected from a national register of Belgium residents. 2001–2 18–95 2419 1043 50.6
 France ESEMeD Nationally representative. The sample was selected from a national list of households with listed telephone numbers. 2001–2 18–97 2894 1436 45.9
 Germany ESEMeD Nationally representative. 2002–3 19–95 3555 1323 57.8
 Italy ESEMeD Nationally representative. The sample was selected from municipality resident registries. 2001–2 18–100 4712 1779 71.3
 Netherlands ESEMeD Nationally representative. The sample was selected from municipal postal registries. 2002–3 18–95 2372 1094 56.4
 Portugal NMHS Nationally representative. 2008–9 18–81 3849 2060 57.3
 Spain ESEMeD Nationally representative. 2001–2 18–98 5473 2121 78.6
 Spain – Murcia PEGASUS- Murcia Murcia region. Regionally representative. 2010–12 18–96 2621 1459 67.4
 United States NCS-R Nationally representative. 2001–3 18–99 9282 5692 70.9
Total (41104) (20123) 64.4
III. Totale (71576) (35012) 70.3

aThe World Bank (2012) Data. Accessed May 12, 2012 at: http://data.worldbank.org/country. Some of the WMH countries have moved into new income categories since the surveys were conducted. The income groupings above reflect the status of each country at the time of data collection. The current income category of each country is available at the preceding URL

bNSMH (The Colombian National Study of Mental Health); MMHHS (Medellín Mental Health Household Study); LEBANON (Lebanese Evaluation of the Burden of Ailments and Needs of the Nation); M-NCS (The Mexico National Comorbidity Survey); NSMHW (The Nigerian Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing); RMHS (Romania Mental Health Survey); AMHES (Argentina Mental Health Epidemiologic Survey); ESEMeD (The European Study Of The Epidemiology Of Mental Disorders); NMHS (Portugal National Mental Health Survey); PEGASUS-Murcia (Psychiatric Enquiry to General Population in Southeast Spain-Murcia);NCS-R (The US National Comorbidity Survey Replication)

cMost WMH surveys are based on stratified multistage clustered area probability household samples in which samples of areas equivalent to counties or municipalities in the US were selected in the first stage followed by one or more subsequent stages of geographic sampling (e.g., towns within counties, blocks within towns, households within blocks) to arrive at a sample of households, in each of which a listing of household members was created and one or two people were selected from this listing to be interviewed. No substitution was allowed when the originally sampled household resident could not be interviewed. These household samples were selected from census area data in all countries other than France (where telephone directories were used to select households) and the Netherlands (where postal registries were used to select households). Several WMH surveys (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain-Murcia) used municipal, country resident or universal health-care registries to select respondents without listing households. 10 of the 17 surveys are based on nationally representative household samples

dThe response rate is calculated as the ratio of the number of households in which an interview was completed to the number of households originally sampled, excluding from the denominator households known not to be eligible either because of being vacant at the time of initial contact or because the residents were unable to speak the designated languages of the survey. The weighted average response rate is 70.3%

eThe following surveys, included in Thornicroft et al., 2016,10 were excluded from this study due to lack of data on the specific drug taken and on adherence to prescribed dosage: Beijing/Shanghai, Bulgaria, Iraq, Israel, Japan, and Peru