Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Norwegian 10-14-year-olds: Results from a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Youth mental health problems is the leading cause of disability worldwide and a major public health concern. Prevalence rates are needed for planning preventive interventions and health care services. We here report Norwegian prevalence estimates for youth mental disorders based on findings from the Bergen Child Study cohort. A web-based psychiatric interview; the Development and Well-Being Assessment, was completed by parents and teachers of 2,043 10-14-year-olds from the city of Bergen, Norway. Post-stratification weights were used to account for selective participation related to parental educational in the estimation of prevalence rates. Prevalence rates are presented for the whole sample and stratified by gender and age. The overall population weighted estimate suggests that 6.93% (95% CI 5.06-9.41) of the children met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for one or more psychiatric disorders. There were no robust indications of age- or gender-related differences in the prevalence. 11.4% of the children fulfilled criteria for more than one diagnosis. The most common comorbid conditions were ADHD and disruptive disorders. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders was relatively low among Norwegian 10-14-year-olds, compared to published worldwide prevalence estimates. This is in line with estimates from prior studies from the Nordic countries. These findings raise important questions about the origins of different prevalence rates for psychiatric disorders between societies. The findings also illustrate the importance of locally driven epidemiological studies for planning preventative efforts and appropriately scaling mental health services to meet the need of the population.

Fig 1. Participant flow through the two phases of the second wave of the Bergen Child Study.

Fig 2. Prevalence of main psychiatric disorders by age.

Population weighted estimates. Participant age (range 10.4–14.2 years) was categorized into five approximately equally sized intervals corresponding to the categories on the x-axis (n = 322–326). Error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals of the point prevalence.

Fig 3. Cumulative number of diagnosed participants by age.

Observed frequencies. The points represent the cumulative number of participants with a diagnosis at each age. The scales on the y-axis are free as the cumulative frequencies vary by psychiatric disorder.

Fig 4. Venn diagram illustrating overlap between main diagnostic categories.

There were no children with comorbidity across all diagnostic categories. Anxiety and depressive disorders were collapsed into the category Emotional disorders for the purpose of producing this figure.