Le fardeau lié aux problèmes de santé, troubles mentaux inclus, a été peu étudié en France. Aussi avons-nous analysé les données françaises résultant de l’enquête sur la santé mentale dans le monde (World Mental Health [WMH]) mise en place par l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), en nous intéressant aux journées d’activité perdues liées à des problèmes de santé courants en population générale. Des entretiens en face-à-face ont été réalisés chez 2894 sujets (taux de réponse 45,9 %) afin de repérer dix maladies physiques et neuf troubles mentaux et d’évaluer les jours où les sujets interrogés n’avaient pas pu assurer leurs activités habituelles. L’association entre le nombre de jours d’inactivité et des troubles spécifiques, comorbidités comprises, a été évaluée par régression multiple. Mille quatre cent trente-six sujets ont été inclus dans l’analyse. Le nombre de jours d’inactivité liés à des problèmes de santé était le plus élevé chez les sujets souffrant de troubles mentaux, tant au niveau individuel que sociétal. Les données de l’étude de santé mentale de l’OMS confirment l’importance des troubles mentaux dans les coûts sociétaux en France et devrait permettre d’affiner les futures politiques de santé publique.

The burden of health problems, including mental disorders, can be assessed in several ways such as through healthcare costs or loss of productivity. Their impact on daily activities as a whole has received much less attention, especially in France. Therefore, we undertook the analysis of the French general population data from the World Mental Health (WMH) surveys promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) assessing the number of days out of role due to common mental and physical disorders.

Face-to-face interviews were carried out with 2894 respondents (45.9% pooled response rate). Presence of ten chronic physical disorders and nine mental disorders was assessed for each respondent along with information about the number of days in the past month each respondent reported being totally unable to work or carry out their other normal daily activities because of problems with either physical or mental health. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate associations of specific conditions and comorbidities with days out of role, after controlling for basic socio-demographics.

One thousand four hundred and thirty-six subjects reporting at least one core-symptom of a mental disorder underwent the whole assessment. The mean annual number of days out of role was high among those with at least one mental disorder (24.2±8.3). The population attributable risk proportion (PARP), i.e. the proportion of days out of role that would have been avoided if the considered disorder had remitted, was also estimated. Mental disorders as a whole accounted for 49.5% of the PARP.

French data on days out of role from the WHO WMH surveys showed the high burden of mental illness in the general population. These results may have been underestimated, taking into account that subjects who were hospitalized at the time of recruitment, whose disorders might also account for a high proportion of days out of role, could not be assessed with our design.

Common health conditions, especially mental disorders, make up a large proportion of the number of days out of role. Such data should be considered to design more efficient public health strategies.