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First Evidence of Comorbidity of Problem Gambling and Other Psychiatric Problems in a Representative Urban Sample of South Africa

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Abstract

We investigate the extent to which problem gambling in a recent South African sample, as measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), is comorbid with depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Data are from the 2010 South African National Urban Prevalence Study of Gambling Behavior. A representative sample of the urban adult population in South Africa (N = 3,000). Responses to the 9-item PGSI and ratings on the Beck Depression Index, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Tool (WHO ASSIST). Cross tabulations and Chi square analyses along with logistic regression analyses with and without controls for socio-demographic and/or socio-economic variables were used to identify comorbidities. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, alcohol and substance use were clearly higher among the sample at risk for problem gambling. Black African racial status and living in areas characterized by migrant mining workers was associated with increased risk of problem gambling and comorbidities. There is strong evidence that findings of comorbidities between pathological gambling and depression, anxiety and substance abuse in developed countries generalize to the developing country of South Africa. Historical context, however, gives those comorbidities a unique demographic distribution.

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Notes

  1. The term ‘Coloured’ is the preferred self-designation for an ethnically and culturally distinctive population, located primarily in South Africa’s Western Cape province, who are descended from a mixture of people present in the area in the seventeenth century, of whom the largest group were immigrants brought as slaves from Indonesia. Some of these ancestors were also indigenous Khoisan people.

  2. The AMPS is conducted annually and is representative of the metropolitan areas of South Africa. The AMPS was used to weight the data because it more accurately reflected the demographic profile in South African metropolitan areas in 2008 than the outdated 2001 Census.

  3. The number of individuals (n) diverges from the proportion that is reported due to the sampling weights that have been applied to the data to make them representative of the adult population.

  4. Pearson Chi square statistics were computed to determine whether the distribution of gambling categories differed according to socio-economic characteristics. The Pearson chi-square statistic is corrected for the survey design (i.e., sampling weights, clustering, and stratification) and is converted into an F statistic.

  5. Remote sites for energy extraction in, for example, Canada and Norway differ from the South African mining concentrations in at least two important ways relevant to the present discussion: the predominantly male employee groups are much smaller, better educated, and frequently rotated home at company expense.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Carla Sharp

  2. School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Andrew Dellis, Andre Hofmeyr, Harold Kincaid & Don Ross

  3. Center for Economic Analysis of Risk, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Don Ross

Authors
  1. Carla Sharp
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  2. Andrew Dellis
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  3. Andre Hofmeyr
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  4. Harold Kincaid
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  5. Don Ross
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Correspondence to Harold Kincaid.

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Sharp, C., Dellis, A., Hofmeyr, A. et al. First Evidence of Comorbidity of Problem Gambling and Other Psychiatric Problems in a Representative Urban Sample of South Africa. J Gambl Stud 31, 679–694 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-014-9469-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-014-9469-y

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