Table 2.

Unadjusted associations between 30-day psychological distress and socioeconomic status, social support and social capital, in a nationally-representative sample of South African adults

	Category of psychological distress (total K-10 score)					Comparison of 30+ versus <30
	Low (0–19)	Moderate (20–24)	High (25–29)	Very high (30+)	p-Value	Odds ratio	95% CI
Overall prevalence	73.3	10.7	7.9	8.2
Demographic characteristics
Age
18–29	40.1	41.2	35.8	30.5	0.324	1.0	(Reference)
30–39	21.4	23.0	25.0	24.1		1.44	1.06–1.97
40–49	17.7	18.1	18.8	22.0		1.62	1.10–2.38
50+	20.8	17.7	21.5	23.4		1.49	1.04–2.14
Gender
Female	52.0	57.1	53.3	64.6	0.003	1.64	1.19–2.26
Race
Black African	73.6	81.8	82.8	85.8	0.015	1.0	(Reference)
Coloured	11.0	7.8	10.0	9.8		0.82	0.49–1.36
White	11.7	7.8	5.1	2.2		0.18	0.08–0.39
Indian/Asian	3.7	2.6	2.2	2.3		0.59	0.26–1.31
Currently married	49.7	49.4	51.1	54.1	0.583	1.18	0.94–1.51
Urban location	62.4	64.2	58.5	54.1	0.126	0.71	0.52–0.98
Socioeconomic status
High	39.7	30.8	27.2	21.4	<0.001	1.0	(Reference)
Moderate	33.2	35.1	35.4	29.8		1.56	1.06–2.29
Low	27.1	34.1	37.4	48.9		2.99	2.01–4.44
Social support
High	35.3	33.8	28.1	26.1	0.014	1.0	(Reference)
Moderate	34.2	30.2	31.5	34.7		1.37	0.93–2.01
Low	30.4	36.0	40.4	39.2		1.62	1.11–2.37
Social capital
High	33.5	29.6	27.4	24.4	0.035	1.0	(Reference)
Moderate	31.9	35.7	36.4	34.9		1.42	1.02–1.79
Low	34.7	34.7	36.1	40.7		1.56	1.05–2.32
Recent life events
None	40.1	26.5	19.7	15.0	<0.001	1.0	(Reference)
1–2	40.7	35.6	37.5	36.7		2.26	1.64–3.11
3–4	14.5	23.7	24.8	26.9		4.02	2.60–6.21
5 or more	4.7	14.1	18.0	21.4		7.58	4.93–11.63
Traumatic life events
None	29.3	20.8	17.5	19.1	<0.001	1.0	(Reference)
1–2	50.7	46.8	51.3	45.9		1.31	0.92–1.86
3–4	9.5	14.5	15.1	13.3		1.80	1.08–3.02
5 or more	10.5	17.9	16.1	21.7		2.62	1.71–4.01