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—To examine the impact of common mental illness on functional disability and the cross-cultural consistency of this relationship while controlling for physical illness. A secondary objective was to determine the level of disability associated with specific psychiatric disorders.

—A cross-sectional sample selected by two-stage sampling.

—Primary health care facilities in 14 countries covering most major cultures and languages.

—A total of 25916 consecutive attenders of these facilities were screened for psychopathology using the General Health Questionnaire (96% response). Screened patients were sampled from the General Health Questionnaire score strata for the second-stage Composite International Diagnostic Interview administered to 5447 patients (62% response).

—Patient-reported physical disability, number of disability days, and interviewer-rated …