Evaluation of Psychological Symptom Differences Between Disabled and Non-Disabled Individuals

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in psychological symptoms between disabled and non-disabled individuals.
Material and Method: This paper conducts a multi-facet analysis (depression, anxiety, negative self, hostility and somatization) on disabled people for the first time. This study included 24493 people (non-disabled=23391, disabled=1102) from 9 demographic regions in Turkey and participants in the study were 18 years or older. Socio-demographic information form and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were used as data collection tools. The participants' scores from the BSI were evaluated according to their disability status for each of the subdimensions of depression, anxiety, negative self, hostility and somatization.
Results: When the mean BSI scores of the participants were compared, it was seen that the lowest mean scores in all sub-dimensions belong to non-disabled individuals. When the groups of people with disabilities were compared according to psychological symptoms, there were no differences for the 4 symptoms, whereas the scores of individuals with chronic disease were significantly higher in the somatization sub-dimension than the others. It was observed that hearing impaired individuals had the lowest mean score in anxiety, somatization and hostility sub-dimensions among the groups of disabled individuals.
Conclusion: Increasing awareness of disabled people in society and supporting them with psychotherapy methods that will improve the resistance mechanisms and increase adaptation to disability will contribute to social welfare.