Rural communities in Ghana often lack adequate mental health resources, leading to underdiagnosis and undertreatment of common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. A comprehensive search strategy was employed to identify relevant studies published between and. Studies were assessed for quality using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. Data synthesis included meta-analysis of quantitative data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The review identified a total of 17 RCTs, with a combined sample size of over 4, 000 participants across various campaigns. Findings suggest that mental health awareness campaigns significantly increased knowledge about common mental disorders by an average of 35% (95% CI: 28-42%). While the campaigns were generally effective in enhancing knowledge and attitudes towards mental health, there was limited evidence on their impact on service utilization. Further research should focus on evaluating the long-term effects of these campaigns and exploring strategies to increase service uptake among rural populations. Treatment effect was estimated with logit (pᵢ) =₀+^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.
Tshisekedi et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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