Anxiety disorders among adolescents in a rural area of northern India using Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders tool: A Community-based Study

Abstract

Background:Anxiety disorders are the most frequent mental disorders encountered in childhood and adolescent years. The number of epidemiological studies done in this area within India is limited.Objectives:We determined the prevalence of anxiety disorders among adolescents in a rural community of Ballabgarh block, district Faridabad, Haryana. Secondarily, we also assessed sociodemographic and other factors associated with anxiety disorders among adolescents.Materials and Methods:This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 729 adolescents (10–19 years). Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders tool was used for assessing prevalence and type of anxiety disorders. Sociodemographic and personal factors were included in the logistic regression multivariable model to establish associations. Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) along with 95% confidence intervals (CI) are computed.Results:The prevalence of anxiety disorders among adolescents was (22.7%; 95% CI: 19.7–26.0). Girls (27.6%) had higher prevalence than boys (18.3%) (P < 0.01). Social anxiety disorder (14.3%; 95% CI: 11.7–16.9) was the most common form of anxiety disorder. Female sex (AOR 1.8; 95% CI 1.2–2.6; P < 0.01), lower-middle socioeconomic status (AOR 1.96; 95% CI 1.2–3.1; P < 0.01), and presence of stressful event within the past 1-year (AOR 2.48; 95% CI: 1.12–5.06; P = 0.01) were found to be associated with the presence of anxiety disorders.Conclusions:Anxiety disorders are common among adolescents in rural settings of India. Tackling them will require appropriate health systems response. Adequate interventions should be incorporated at primary care level to address the mental health concerns of adolescents.

Errors in the use of multivariable logistic regression analysis: An empirical analysis

“…The correct interpretation is “Odds of alcoholic relapse have a high level of craving is 1.8 times more than odds of alcoholic relapse having a low level of craving.” In Madasu et al . reported that “female sex was found to be two times more associated with anxiety disorder than male.”[ 2 ]…”

“…Recalculation of OR values found OR = 3.07 and 95% CI (1.10–8.61) with P = 0.03, which did not include one. [ 2 ] Rampur et al . reported OR of social support as 0.33 (95% CI: 0.14–0.79); with P = 0.13.…”

“…The issue (October 2019–December 2019) of the Indian Journal of Community Medicine published 17 original articles, and of these, five studies applied the multivariable logistic regression (MLR), and one study applied the multinomial logistic regression. [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ] The MLR is widely applied statistical methods in the medical journals to assess the magnitude of association between binary outcomes and sets of independent qualitative and quantitative variables. I would like to highlight common errors that occurred in MLR articles published in this issue.…”

“…Two studies chosen the cutoff of < 0.2 or < 0.25,[ 1 3 ] whereas four studies selected < 0.05. [ 2 4 5 6 ] Four studies had a mismatch in variable selecting criterion and actually included in the MLR as follows:…”

“…(a) In Dubey et al ., four variables such as gender, age, vacation, and the number of siblings selected with P < 0.2 on UA but included only first three in MLR,[ 1 ](b) Madasu et al . selected the variables with cutoff P < 0.25 in UA but included the age having P = 0.74 and excluded the family type having P = 0.17,[ 2 ](c) Rampur et al . chose P < 0.05 to select the variables on the basis of t -test, the variable tangible support score showed P > 0.05 but included in the MLR model, and[ 3 ](d) Ram et al .…”