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The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among Vietnamese children and adolescents
Author(s) -
McKelvey Robert S,
Sang David L,
Baldassar Loretta,
Davies Lisa,
Roberts Lynne,
Cutler Neil
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04880.x
Subject(s) - vietnamese , medicine , psychiatry , population , anxiety , pediatrics , philosophy , linguistics , environmental health
Objective: To determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among Vietnamese children and adolescents living in Perth, Western Australia. Design, participants and setting: A list of Vietnamese households was drawn from Perth telephone directories. A computer program generated a systematic probability sample of households. All children and adolescents aged 9–17 in these households were invited to participate in the study. Children and their parents were interviewed in their home using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, version 2.3 (DISC‐2.3). The child version (DISC‐C) was used for children and the parent version (DISC‐P) for adults. The study was conducted between July and December 1997. Main outcome measures: The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, based on DISC‐C and DISC‐P data. Results: Results were based on the 519 children (89.2%) for whom complete data were available. Twenty‐three parents (4.4%) reported that their child had one or more disorders on the DISC‐P, 82 children (15.8%) reported one or more disorders on the DISC‐C, and 18.3% of children were reported to have a disorder on either the DISC‐C or the DISC‐P. Parent–child concordance on specific diagnoses was very low (0.6%). The great majority of disorders reported were anxiety disorders, especially simple and social phobias. Conclusions: The combined prevalence of psychiatric disorders among Vietnamese children aged 9–17 was similar to that found among children in Western Australia's general population. Vietnamese children in our study were much more likely to report symptoms of a psychiatric disorder than were their parents.