A Study of the Effect of Mental Health Promotion on Mental Health Index

"Health" includes physical and mental aspects. The evaluation of "Mental Health" contains four domains: psychophysical health, perceived security of the living world, meaning and worth of life, satisfaction of family-social interaction. We have established a Taiwan Mental Health Index scale based on literature review and experts' opinions in 2002. The reliability and validity were assessed to be satisfactory. This TMHI scale has been applied in nation-wide mental health surveys of 2002, 2003, and 2004. In order to evaluate the effect of mental health promotion activities, this research project will adopt this TMHI scale as the assessment tool. 300 people will be recruited for study after signing the informed consent. The general population sample of 1076 subjects recruited in 2004, will be as the comparison sample. The difference in 4 dimensions of MHI will be analyzed between these two study groups. The 300 study subjects will be subcategorized into two groups of low and high attendance groups. The difference in MHI between groups will also be statistically examined using independent t-test. The statistical signification is set at α=0.05. This study result will be as the reference for setting up effective mental health promotion program for general public.