International Journal of Recent Innovations in Medicine and Clinical Research Open Access, Peer Reviewed, Abstracted and Indexed Journal ISSN: 2582-1075 https://ijrimcr.com/ Volume-3, Issue-2, 2021: 1-7 1 Research Article A Comparative Study to Assess the Knowledge and Attitude towards Mental Illness among Adults in Selected Urban and Rural Area Prasad Patil * , Prajakta Panaskar ** , Namrata Salve ** , Mahesh Waghmare ** * Vice Principal, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil College of Nursing and Medical Research Institute, Malshiras, Akluj, Solapur, Maharashtra, India. ** Final Year B.Sc. Nursing students, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil College of Nursing & Medical Research Institute, Malshiras, Akluj, Solapur, Maharashtra, India. Received: April 5, 2021 Accepted: May 2, 2021 Published: May 20, 2021 Abstract: A comparative descriptive study was conducted to compare the knowledge, attitude regarding mental illness among adults between urban and rural area. A total of 100 adults were adopted in selected urban and rural areas by using purposive sampling technique. Data was collected by using structured knowledge questionnaire and Likert’s scale. Data was also analyzed by descriptive statistics (mean, median, frequency and percentage) and Chi squared (χ2) test. The result revealed that the majority 82% of adults had good knowledge in urban but 78% of rural adults had poor knowledge about mental illness. The majority 86% of rural adults had negative attitude towards mental illness whereas in urban, majority of 94% adults had negative attitude towards mental illness. The calculated ‘t’ value (‘t (99)’=13.3, p< 0.05) was greater than the table value (‘t (99)’=1.987) at 5% level. Hence, there was significant difference of knowledge scores of adults regarding mental illness between urban and rural. The calculated ‘t’ value (‘t (99)’=18.72, P< 0.05) was greater than the table value (‘t (99)’=1.987) at 5% level. Hence, there was significant difference of attitude score regarding mental illness among adults between urban and rural area. There was significant association of monthly family income ( 2 = 46.409), education ( 2 =28.652), occupation ( 2 =35.84) and participation in mental awareness programme ( 2 =12.857) at p<0.05 with knowledge level on mental illness. Moreover, there was also significant association of monthly family income ( 2 = 48.377), education ( 2 =27.938), occupation ( 2 =27.166) and participation in mental awareness programme ( 2 =8.975) at p<0.05 with attitude regarding. The study findings suggest the need of proper awareness programmes among the adults of rural and building positive orientation and encouraging preventive measures towards mental illness among adults is necessary for effective promotion of community mental health. Keywords: Adult, attitude, comparative, knowledge, mental illness, rural, urban, area. Introduction Mental illness can occur at any time, to anyone. It occurs when a state of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being is disturbed. According to World (Mental) Health Report 2019, 20 million people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia and 264 million suffering from depression. Mental disorders are a great source of distress, impaired productivity and diminished quality of life for several people and families. 1,2 It was estimated that at least 58/1000 people have a mental illness and about 10 million Indians suffer from severe mental illness. 3,4 Mental illness due to mental health problems leads to increasing burden to society and also harming the public. It is highly prevalent over the world, which is alarming to health workers in order to prevent and manage the mental health problems. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of public attitudes have shown that despite