Individual and societal impact on earnings associated with serious mental illness in metropolitan China

To evaluate individual-level and societal-level losses of income associated with serious mental illness in metropolitan China, a multi-stage probability survey was administered to adults aged 18–70 years in Beijing and Shanghai. We used data to estimate individual-level expected earnings from a model that included information about the respondents' education level, marital status, age, and gender. Expected earnings were compared to observed earnings among respondents with mental illness and serious disability. The result shows that the 12-month prevalence of such serious mental illness was 0.6%. Its impact on earnings was significant in the total sample and was higher for males (76% of gender-specific expected salary was lost) than for females (32%). When projected to societal level, the annual impact was estimated to be 466 million Renminbi (RMB 8.27 = USD 1), less than 0.2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the two cities. Serious mental illness was associated with a substantial decrease in individual-level earnings, but the burden that resulted from societal-level loss of earnings was not large enough to help drive mental health policy and programs in China.