Beijing Children's Hospital, National Center for Children Healthy, Capital Medical University, 56 Nanlishi Road, Beijing, 100101, China.
Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2021 Feb;30(2):233-241. doi: 10.1007/s00787-020-01507-6. Epub 2020 Mar 14.
Improving the mental health of children and adolescents is a critical priority in China. However, only minimal information is available concerning the prevalence of mental disorders. In the present study, a two-stage national survey has been completed in five regions of China. In the first stage, data from the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were collected for each participant to identify the prevalence of the behavioral and emotional problems in China. A multistage cluster stratified random sampling design was used, and a total of 71,929 individuals aged 6-16 years were collected. In this large cohort, 36,893 (49.86%) were males, and 49,015 (66.24%) were living in urban communities. Overall, 17.6% (90% confidence interval 17.4%, 17.9%) of the children and adolescents were identified as having behavioral and emotional problems. Moreover, age and sex effect was found for the CBCL scores. The boys' cohort had a higher prevalence of behavioral and emotional problems than girls (18.6% versus 16.6%). In the older cohort aged 12-16, the prevalence was higher than for the younger cohort aged 6-11 (19.0% versus 15.9%). Notably, it seems that the prevalence of the behavioral and emotional problems for children and adolescents had a rise in the past 30 years, but the scarcity of pediatric psychiatrists in China needs to be addressed. To reduce the behavioral and emotional problems, the whole society, including mental health providers, educators, and parents, needs to focus on and pay more attention to it. It will have long-term benefits for China.
改善儿童和青少年的心理健康是中国的一项重要优先事项。然而，关于精神障碍的患病率，只有很少的信息。在本研究中，在中国五个地区完成了两阶段的全国调查。在第一阶段，对每位参与者进行了 Achenbach 儿童行为检查表（CBCL）的数据收集，以确定中国行为和情绪问题的患病率。采用多阶段聚类分层随机抽样设计，共收集了 71929 名 6-16 岁的个体。在这个大样本中，36893 名（49.86%）是男性，49015 名（66.24%）生活在城市社区。总的来说，17.6%（90%置信区间 17.4%，17.9%）的儿童和青少年被确定为存在行为和情绪问题。此外，CBCL 评分存在年龄和性别效应。男孩队列的行为和情绪问题患病率高于女孩队列（18.6%比 16.6%）。在 12-16 岁的年龄较大的队列中，患病率高于 6-11 岁的年龄较小的队列（19.0%比 15.9%）。值得注意的是，似乎儿童和青少年的行为和情绪问题的患病率在过去 30 年有所上升，但中国儿科精神科医生的短缺需要得到解决。为了减少行为和情绪问题，包括心理健康提供者、教育工作者和家长在内的整个社会都需要关注并更加重视这一问题。这将对中国产生长期的好处。
