Prevalence of affective disorders in Chinese school-attending children and adolescents aged 6-16 based on a national survey by MINI-Kid

Hu Deng; Fang Wen; Hui Xu; Hanxue Yang; Junjuan Yan; Yi Zheng; Yonghua Cui; Ying Li

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.060

Prevalence of affective disorders in Chinese school-attending children and adolescents aged 6-16 based on a national survey by MINI-Kid

J Affect Disord. 2023 Jun 15:331:192-199. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.060. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Authors

Hu Deng¹, Fang Wen², Hui Xu³, Hanxue Yang⁴, Junjuan Yan², Yi Zheng⁵, Yonghua Cui⁶, Ying Li⁷

Affiliations

¹ Peking University HuiLongGuan Clinical Medical School, Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, Beijing 100096, China.
² Department of Psychiatry, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, China.
³ Big Data Center, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, Beijing, China.
⁴ School of Psychology, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, China. Electronic address: cuiyonghua@bch.com.cn.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, China. Electronic address: liying@bch.com.cn.

PMID: 36948465
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.060

Abstract

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD), dysthymia disorder (DD) and bipolar disorder (BD) are the most prevalent affective disorders. A nationwide epidemiological investigation of MDD, DD and BP in school-attending children and adolescents was carried out, taking the effect of age, gender and comorbidity into consideration.

Methods: A two-stage nationwide epidemiological study of point prevalence was conducted. Using a multistage cluster stratified random sampling strategy. The sample distribution was described, and the point prevalence of affective disorders was estimated. Chi-squared tests were used to compare disease prevalence based on sex and age. Comorbid ratios for MDD, DD and BP were calculated.

Results: The total number of cases in Stage 1 was 72,107 (aged 6-16 years). The point prevalence of MDD, DD and BP were 2.004 % (95 % CI: 1.902 to 2.106), 0.352 % (95 % CI: 0.309 to 0.395) and 0.856 % (95 % CI: 0.788 to 0.923), respectively. The total prevalence of affective disorder was 3.212 % (95 % CI: 3.079 to 3.338). The total prevalence of affective disorders between sexes (female: 3.834 % versus male: 2.587 %, χ² = 90.155, p < 0.001) was consistent with the gender difference in MDD, DD and MD. The total prevalence of affective disorders in adolescents was higher than that in children (adolescents: 5.024 % versus children: 1.863 %, χ² = 566.841, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Our study is the first nationwide survey on the prevalence of affective disorders among school-attending children and adolescents aged 6-16 in China. Our results also highlighted the importance of addressing comorbidities in future studies of affective disorders.

Keywords: Affective disorders; Bipolar disorder; China; Dysthymia disorder; Major depressive disorder.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Bipolar Disorder* / epidemiology
Child
Comorbidity
Depressive Disorder, Major* / epidemiology
Dysthymic Disorder* / epidemiology
East Asian People
Female
Humans
Male
Prevalence
Schools