More than 16 per cent of Hong Kong’s young people have likely mental health issues, large-scale study finds

HKU research team finds close to 20 per cent of respondents in youth mental health study had suicidal thoughts in past year; 1.5 per cent tried to kill themselves

Experts appeal to health authorities to tackle mental health impact of technology on young people

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A major HKU study has found that more than 16 per cent of young people have likely mental health problems. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 12:27am, 12 May 2023Updated: 9:36am, 12 May 2023

More than 16 per cent of Hong Kong’s young people have a probable psychiatric disorder, with family relationships and lack of private space identified as a major risk factor, an unprecedented mental health study of thousands of teenagers carried out in the city has found.

And experts on Thursday appealed to health authorities to tackle the impact that rapid digitalisation and artificial intelligence have had on the mental health of youngsters and to boost their ability to face the problems and opportunities of the hi-tech era.

Researchers discovered close to 20 per cent of respondents had suicidal thoughts in the last 12 months, 5 per cent had made a plan to take their own lives and 1.5 per cent had attempted suicide.

“Those demonstrating major depressive disorder are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and eight times more likely to make a suicide plan and attempt,” said Professor Eric Chen Yu-hai, the chair professor in the University of Hong Kong’s psychiatry department.

“It is therefore an important screening item in suicide prevention.”

Wong Yan-lung, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health (left), with Professor Eric Chen, HKU psychiatry department’s chair professor, and Dr Stephanie Wong, a research officer with the department. Photo: Emily Hung

He was speaking after a team from the university’s psychiatry department interviewed 3,340 youngsters aged 15 to 24 between 2019 and 2022, using a random sampling approach, to gauge how widespread psychiatric disorders were.