The prestige of somatic and mental disporders : A suvey among health professionals and a representative general population sample

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the paper is to study the ranking of disorders according to their perceived importance. Previous studies suggest that rankings according to the perceived or attributed “value” or importance create informal hierarchies of disorders on normative attitudes about symptoms, treatment and outcome. In this work we studied disorder ranking in the general population and among health professionals, and some possible explaining factors. Data source: 1,127 adults representative of the Norwegian National Population Register participated, of whom 220 representatives were of the broad range of health professionals. Study design: Respondents completed a survey questionnaire within a cross-sectional design. Principal findings: Somatic disorders were given the highest rank, but mental disorders were ranked higher than in previous studies. Modest effects were found for explaining variables. Conclusion: The general population rankings of disorders do not differ greatly from rankings made by health professionals. The impact of personalized variables was modest, indicating the need for future studies to explore the impact of more social and culture variables.