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Umbrella Review of the Global Prevalence of Conduct Disorder in Children and Adolescents

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Abstract

With the ever-increasing prevalence of mental health issues worldwide, a robust synthesis of existing epidemiological data on the prevalence of Conduct disorder (CD) in children and adolescents is needed to strengthen the knowledge base. This quantitative umbrella review aims to provide a robust synthesis of evidence on the prevalence of CD children and adolescents from meta-analytic systematic reviews. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, PsychINFO, and Scopus to identify relevant articles. The study protocol has been registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023447620). The methodological quality of the studies was evaluated by using a Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR). Invariance variance weighted random-effect meta-analysis was performed to pool prevalence estimates from the included articles. Seven meta-analyses, encompassing 138 primary studies and slightly over 48 million CD cases were included in this umbrella review. The quantitative analysis of these studies found a pooled prevalence of CD 3.0% (95%CI 2.0–5%) in children and adolescents, based on random effect meta-analyses. In a stratified analysis, the prevalence estimate of CD was 2.6 times higher in boys compared to girls. Evidence from our quantitative umbrella review showed that the prevalence of CD is relatively high in children and adolescents with boys 2.6 times more likely to experience the disorders when compared to girls. Our findings underlie that attention should be given to preventing, identifying, and treating CD in children and adolescents.

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All data generated and analyzed during this study are included in this review.

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Acknowledgements

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Funding

No external funding obtained for this systematic review and meta-analysis.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

    Getinet Ayano

  2. Research Directorate Office and Nursing Education Department, SaintPaulo’s Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Mebratu Abraha

  3. Bethel Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Yitbarek Gizachew

  4. Aksum University, Aksum, Ethiopia

    Light Tsegay

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  1. Getinet Ayano
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  2. Mebratu Abraha
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  4. Yitbarek Gizachew
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Contributions

GA and YG developed the methodology, abstracted the data and evaluate the quality of the studies. GA conceived the study, involved in identification of the studies, conducted the analyses and drafted the manuscript. MA and LT reviewed the draft of the manuscript and analyses. All author dead and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Getinet Ayano.

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Ayano, G., Abraha, M., Tsegay, L. et al. Umbrella Review of the Global Prevalence of Conduct Disorder in Children and Adolescents. Psychiatr Q 95, 173–183 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-023-10060-9

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