A Comprehensive Mental Health Epidemiological Survey of a University Population

Nine demographic variables were correlated with the degree of emotional disturbance in a college population as measured by the Health Opinion Survey (HOS) which was mailed to 2800 randomly selected univer­ sity students. The number of returned questionnaires totaled 1429, yielding a return fate of 53 percent. Sex, employment, and religion were significantly correlated with emotional disturbance with females showing the most extreme HOS scores as did unemployed individuals and students with no religious affiliation. Of the remaining six variables, marital status, school year and grade point average showed a definite trend toward significance. Significant two-way effects were demonstrated in the analysis of class by sex and marital status by employment inter­ actions. The ability of an anonymous self-report epidemiological instrument to efficiently gather rates of emotional disturbance within a large population is demonstrated.