The Scottish Health Survey 2008

1 GENERAL HEALTH AND MENTAL WELLBEING - References and notes

1. Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007, Edinburgh: Scottish Government, 2007. [online] Available from: www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/13092240/0 See also: www.scotlandperforms.com

2. Inequalities in Health. Report of the Measuring Inequalities in Health Working Group. Measuring Inequalities in Health Working Group, 2003. [online] Available from: www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/47171/0013513.pdf

3. Equally Well - Report of the Ministerial Taskforce on Health Inequalities, Edinburgh: Scottish Government, 2008.

4. Improving Health in Scotland. The challenge. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive, 2004.

5. Delivering for Mental Health. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive, 2006.

6. Better Health, Better Care Action Plan. Edinburgh: Scottish Government, 2007.

7. National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being - Action Plan 2003-2006. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive, 2003. See also: www.wellontheweb.org

8. Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland, Edinburgh: Scottish Government, 2009.

9. Parkinson, J. (2007). Establishing a core set of national, sustainable mental health indicators for adults in Scotland: Final Report. Glasgow: NHS Health Scotland.

10. Kammann, R. and Flett, R. (1983). Sourcebook for measuring well-being with Affectometer 2. Dunedin, New Zealand: Why Not? Foundation.

11. The briefing paper on the development of WEMWBS is available online from: www.wellscotland.info/indicators.html

12. Goldberg, D. and Williams, P.A. (1988). Users Guide to the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.

13. Idler, E.L. and Benyamini, Y. (1997). Self-rated health and mortality: a review of twenty-seven community studies. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour. 38 (1), 21-37.

14. Hanlon, P., Lawder, R., Elders, A., Clark, D., Walsh, D., Whyte, B. and Sutton, M. (2007). An analysis of the link between behavioural, biological and social risk factors and subsequent hospital admission in Scotland. Journal of Public Health.29, 405-412.

15. Gray, L. and Leyland, A. (2005). Volume 2: Adult health, Chapter 6: General Health, Psychosocial Health and Use of Services. In: Bromley, C., Sproston, K. and Shelton, N. (eds.). The Scottish Health Survey 2003. Edinburgh: The Scottish Executive.

16. Stewart-Brown, S. and Janmohamed, K. (2008). Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale ( WEMWBS). User Guide Version 1. Warwick and Edinburgh: University of Warwick and NHS Health Scotland.

17. Braunholtz, S., Davidson, S., Myant, K. and O'Connor, R. (2007). Well? What do you think? (2006) The third national Scottish survey of public attitudes to mental wellbeing and mental health problems. Edinburgh: Scottish Government.

18. Three classifications of mental wellbeing were derived from responses to WEMWBS, these were above average mental well-being, average mental well-being and below average mental well-being. The multivariate analysis examined factors associated with below average mental wellbeing. A respondent with below average mental wellbeing is defined as someone whose score on WEMWBS is more than one standard deviation below the mean. This three-fold classification approach has previously been used in 'Well? What do you think (2008)' - the national survey of public attitudes to mental wellbeing and mental health problems. It has been devised solely for the purposes of analyses presented in these reports and is not based on any evidence that an average or below average score is problematic. Indeed, WEMWBS is normally distributed in the population which means that in a given population, most people should have average wellbeing.