Mental Health Literacy Survey Germany

What is the state of mental health literacy among individuals in Germany? How challenging is it for them to access information about mental health and seek help when facing mental health emergencies? Until now, these questions have remained largely unanswered. The recent study “Survey Mental Health Literacy in Germany” offers initial insights into these critical issues.

The present study was conducted between July 16 and August 22, 2024 in the general adult population, encompassing N=2,000 individuals in the base study and N=500 apprentices in their occupational training in an additional survey. SKOPOS Institut für Markt- und Kommunikationsforschung GmbH & Co. KG was responsible for data collection. Respondents were recruited from the Norstat panel, which comprises approximately 100,000 active participants for Germany. As participation occurred via smartphone, tablet, or computer, the sample is representative of the adult internet-using population in Germany. Participants aged 18 and above were recruited, selected to be representative in terms of age, gender, and education. Deviations were corrected through the use of an appropriate weighting variable. The development of the questionnaire and information materials was carried out by the study team at the Technical University of Munich in collaboration with the Institut für digitale Gesundheit (IDG) gGmbH in Berlin. The study was reviewed and approved by the TUM Ethics Committee (2024-42-NM-BA).

Based on this definition and building upon the questionnaire from the European Health Literacy Study (HLS-EU-Q; Sørensen et al. 2013), a questionnaire was developed to assess mental health literacy. This questionnaire, the MHLS-GER-Q24, measures health literacy in the domain of mental health and evaluates how difficult or easy it is for people in Germany to find, understand, appraise, and apply information relevant to their mental health. In this study, the MHLS-GER-Q24 was supplemented with additional questions on relevant aspects of (mental) health to conduct the first population-based survey of mental health literacy among adults in Germany, following the expanded HLS-EU model of health literacy proposed by Sørensen et al. (2012).

Initial results
The study reveals that 86.1% of participants demonstrate limited mental health literacy, indicating significant challenges in processing and utilizing information related to mental health, psychological issues and mental health problems, and mental disorders. Individuals with lower educational attainment, those from migrant backgrounds, and residents of the "old" federal states of Germany report significantly greater difficulties in managing mental health information. Overall, young people undergoing vocational training have better mental health literacy, but 79.6% of respondents still achieve a low level of mental health literacy. The majority of this sample report a high level of satisfaction with their training, but the highest level of dissatisfaction is reported with regard to salary.
The data from the two surveys is currently being analyzed and prepared for various publications and will be presented on 3 December at the House of the Federal Press Conference in Berlin