Treatment rates and barriers to mental health service utilisation among university students in South Africa

Table 2 Barriers to treatment among students with any of the conditions we assessed who perceived a need for treatment but who did not access treatment, by institution

		Total (n = 7912)			HWI (n = 2195)			HDI (n = 779)			UTs (n = 273)			DLU (n = 4653)			F(3)	P
		N	%	S.E	N	%	S.E	N	%	S.E	N	%	S.E	N	%	S.E	F(3)	P
Psychological/attitudinal barriers	Too embarrassed	3029	38.3	0.8	802	36.4	1.3	300	38.5	2.0	110	40.2	3.1	1818	39.0	1.1	9.371
	Discrimination (social)	2591	32.7	0.7	675	30.7	1.2	251	32.3	1.9	105	38.5	3.2	1559	33.5	1.0
	Discrimination (career)	2331	29.5	0.7	578	26.3	1.2	214	27.4	1.8	95	34.8	3.1	1444	31.0	1.0
	Any psychological/attitudinal barrier	4294	54.3	0.9	1149	52.2	1.4	417	53.5	2.1	164	60.2	3.3	2564	55.0	1.3
Practical barriers	Costs too much money	4488	56.7	0.9	1120	50.9	1.4	432	55.4	2.2	144	52.6	3.2	2792	59.9	1.3	23.238	< *0.001**
	Unsure where to go	4621	58.4	0.9	1145	52.0	1.4	460	59.1	2.2	164	60.1	3.3	2852	61.2	1.3
	Time/scheduling problem	3237	40.9	0.8	837	38.0	1.3	332	42.6	2.1	120	44.1	3.3	1947	41.8	1.1
	Any Practical barrier	6103	77.1	0.9	1625	73.8	1.4	601	77.2	2.1	204	74.8	3.1	3673	78.8	1.4
Other barriers	Talk to family/friends instead	2884	36.5	0.8	731	33.2	1.2	267	34.3	1.9	89	32.4	3.1	1797	38.6	1.1	3.247	0.5
	Want to handle on own	4844	61.2	0.9	1385	62.9	1.5	487	62.5	2.3	180	65.8	3.3	2792	59.9	1.3
	Unsure of effectiveness	2276	28.8	0.7	566	25.7	1.1	230	29.6	1.8	76	27.8	2.9	1403	30.1	1.0
	Any other barrier	6260	79.1	0.9	1727	78.5	1.5	621	79.8	2.1	226	82.9	2.9	3685	79.1	1.4
Any important barrier	7509	94.9	0.9	2090	95	1.4	737	95	1.9	257	94	2.4	4425	95	1.4	0.725	0.91

We assessed barriers to treatment by asking students to rate the importance of various reasons for NOT accessing treatment on a five-point Likert scale (i.e., How important were each of the following reasons for why you did NOT seek help for your problem(s) – very important, important, somewhat important, not very important, or unimportant?). The reasons given were: You were too embarrassed; You worried that people would treat you differently if they knew you were in treatment); You were afraid it might harm your school or professional career; It costs too much money; You were unsure of where to go or who to see; You had problems with time, transportation, or scheduling; You talked to friends or relatives instead; You wanted to handle the problem on your own; You were not sure if available treatments were very effective
*P < 0/05

ISSN: 1752-4458