Investigating the Gender Differentials of Mentally Ill Persons at Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, Ghana.

Abstract

The study is an attempt to find out which gender group is more vulnerable to mental illness, and also make recommendations based on the results. Secondary data comprising yearly numbers of males and females who reported of mental problems at Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital from 2006 to 2013 was obtained from the Biostatistics unit of the hospital. The data was analysed using Microsoft Excel and MINITAB 15. Tables and graphs, chi-square test for independence, goodness-of-fit test for uniform distribution, and paired t-test were the statistical tools used to achieve the objectives for the study. From the analysis, it was found that new attendance of psychiatric patients to the hospital over the years is not uniformly distributed. Also, there is a significant difference between the numbers of male psychiatric patients and female psychiatric patients, and that male psychiatric patients are significantly more than the females over the years. Again, the yearly gender records (that is, the numbers of males and of females) depends on the years in which the records are made.  

Keywords: psychiatry, mental illness, gender differential, depression, stress.