“No Health Without Mental Health”: An Evidence-Based Study Among Urban Residents in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria

Earlier studies have attempted to investigate the relationship between mental health and individual’s health in the cities of different countries across the globe. In most developing countries, a lot of health challenges abound out of which mental health problems constitute a major example. Mental health problems have thus become very prevalent in most urban communities. This chapter, therefore, attempts to understand the contributions of mental health to individual’s health. Using a sample of urban populations, the study adopted a survey method of data collection with the aid of two self-rated tools to measure self-perceived health and mental health risk while collecting data from a sample of 1200 city residents. The results showed that the highest self-rated health (score above 70%) also reported the lowest mental health risk (26.6%), while those with the lowest self-rated health (score below 50%) reported the highest mental health risk (55.3%). There was significant relationship between individual’s perceived health and mental health (r = −0.212). It is thus recommended that adequate policy attention should be paid not only to physical health issues but also to mental health issues especially among the various urban population groups in developing countries.