BackgroundThe Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioural five factor instrument developed to assess emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties for parent and teacher ratings in the Danish version of SDQ for different age groups of boys and girls.MethodsThe Danish versions of the SDQ were distributed to a total of 71,840 parent and teacher raters of 5-, 7- and 10- to 12-year-old children included in four large scale Danish cohorts. The internal reliability was assessed and exploratory factor analyses were carried out to replicate the originally proposed five factor structure. Mean scores and percentiles were examined in order to differentiate between low, medium and high levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties.ResultsThe original five factor structure could be substantially confirmed. The Conduct items however did not solely load on the proposed Conduct scale and the Conduct scale was further contaminated by non-conduct items. Positively worded items tended to load on the Prosocial scale. This was more so the case for teachers than for parents. Parent and teacher means and percentiles were found to be lower compared to British figures but similar to or only slightly lower than those found in the other Nordic countries. The percentiles for girls were generally lower than for boys, markedly so for the teacher hyperactivity ratings.ConclusionsThe study supports the usefulness of the SDQ as a screening tool for boys and girls across age groups and raters in the general Danish population.

Eating behaviors in a general population cohort were differentially associated with impact and psychopathology. Picky eating was highlighted among other behaviors as having negative correlates. Better knowledge of how childhood eating behaviors impact on children and their association with psychopathology will aid adequate assessment and treatment.

The objective of the study is to investigate the prevalence, distribution and predictors of mental health problems in 5–7-year-old Danish children in the general population. This study is a 5–7-year follow-up study of a birth cohort of 6,090 children, the Copenhagen Child Cohort 2000. The extended version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was answered by parents and pre-school teachers. Data from Danish national registers included perinatal data, socioeconomic data and data on child mental illness diagnosed at hospital in preschool age. Register data from the first year of life was obtained from 99.7% of the children in the cohort. Of 5,898 eligible children, 3,501 participated in the SDQ assessment (59%). The overall estimated 6-month prevalence of mental health problems was 4.8% (95% CI 4.1–5.6). Conduct problems were found in 3.0% (95% CI 2.4–3.6), problems of hyperactivity/inattention in 0.7% (95% CI 0.4–1.0) and emotional problems in 1.5% (95% CI 1.1–1.9). Boys showed a higher risk of having mental health problems as compared to girls: risk ratio 2.0 (95% CI 1.5–2.8). Several markers of socioeconomic disadvantages were associated with mental health problems at 5–7 years of age. In conclusion, the 6-month prevalence of SDQ-measured mental health problems was relatively low in Danish children when compared with findings from several European countries, but was in line with findings from other studies in Nordic countries. The lower prevalence might reflect differences in psychosocial risk load and environmental stress given the social and cultural context

Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are frequent in Inuit children, in terms of incidence and severity. A cohort of 294 children <2 years of age was formed in Sisimiut, a community on the west coast of Greenland, and followed from 1996 to 1998. Data on ARI were collected during weekly visits at home and child-care centers; visits to the community health center were also recorded. The cohort had respiratory symptoms on 41.6% and fever on 4.9% of surveyed days. The incidence of upper and lower respiratory tract infections was 1.6 episodes and 0.9 episodes per 100 days at risk, respectively. Up to 65% of the episodes of ARI caused activity restriction; 40% led to contact with the health center. Compared with studies from other parts of the world, the incidence of ARI appears to be high in Inuit children.