OBJECTIVETo investigate the prevalence of mental disorder through the 12-item general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) survey and its related factors in community settings in Zhejiang Province.

METHODSA muti-level model was analyzed using data of 14,632 respondents nested in counties (cities), townships (urban districts), villages (urban neighborhoods) from the epidemiological survey of mental illnesses above 15 years old.

RESULTSThe mean score measured by GHQ-12 was (1.54 +/- 2.15), which was lower than that of samples from four cities of Guangzhou, Chongqing, Taiyuan and Hangzhou (U = 11.08, P < 0.01). The mental disorder clustered within county (city) level, which represented 4.3% (chi(2) = 3.94, P < 0.05) of the total variance including four levels. After controlling for the county level, the mental disorder was associated with age, marital status, residency patterns, education, occupation and household incoming. In particular, it was reported that higher household incoming was significantly associated with better mental disorder among population in community settings.

CONCLUSIONThe prevalence of mental disorder clustered at the county (city) level is relatively lower with vulnerable groups including divorced, widowed, unemployed, retired, lower-income ones in community settings in Zhejiang Province.