Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and severity of mental health disorders among farming households in Benue State, Nigeria. A total of 180 farming households were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. The data were collected from primary source using a set of questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Results showed that the majority (77.2%) of farming households in the study area had suffered from depression. The result revealed that the mental health disorder prevalence rate was 44.57% in the study area. Out of which, female members of households were the most hit with a mean of 2.79 persons, while that of males was 2.09 persons. On average, a household had 4.90 mental health disorder cases. The result also revealed that the prevalence mean age of mental health disorder cases was 49.94 years and 26.75 years for males and females respectively. The analysis also showed a mean severity of 2.37 and a severity index of 78.89%, with 1.1111 family members incapacitated, of which 0.34 accounted for males and 0.77 females. It was concluded that there is an increasing prevalence and severity rate of mental health disorders among arable crop farming households in Benue State.