Developmental Epidemiology

Abstract

Introducing epidemiology as the study of health and illness in human populations, we discuss what questions modern epidemiology addresses, the key methods it uses, and how these methods can be applied to developmental psychopathology. A short history of how child psychiatric epidemiology has grown into developmental epidemiology illustrates society's changing concerns about child mental health. We describe some of the ways in which developmental epidemiology is branching out into related areas: life course and intergenerational epidemiology; global epidemiology; genetic epidemiology; the study of burden of disease, including cost‐benefit analysis; and the use of epidemiologic designs to test hypotheses about causation. Finally, we note that developmental epidemiology extends the range of translational epidemiology. We make the case that (1) the goal of epidemiological research is disease prevention; (2) understanding the development of a disease and intervening to prevent and control it are equally important aspects of epidemiological research; (3) understanding the development of a disease may point to different kinds of intervention at different stages in the developmental process; and (4) understanding individual development is a critical part of understanding and intervening in the disease process because both risk for and expression of disorder change over the life course.

Temperament factors and dimensional, latent bifactor models of child psychopathology: Transdiagnostic and specific associations in two youth samples

“…Median annual family income was $75,000. Rates of clinically elevated symptoms on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) DSM-oriented scales ranged from 4% for affective problems and ADHD to 9% for anxiety, consistent with epidemiological studies (Costello et al, 2016). …”

“…Caretakers who provided parent report were 85% mothers. In general, psychopathology levels for the sample closely matched those of population epidemiological studies (Costello et al 2016): in total, 24% of youth in the sample had a history of major depressive disorder before or during the study period, 16.3% of youth in the sample had a history of an anxiety disorder, 5.2% had ADHD symptoms in the clinical range, and 5.6% had conduct problems in the clinical range (Arnett et al, 2015; Hankin et al, 2015). …”

Prevention and public health approaches to trauma and traumatic stress: a rationale and a call to action

“… Targets of the three major classes of preventive interventions: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Adapted from Costello and Angold ( 1995 ). …”

Separation anxiety disorder in adults - a new diagnostic category

“…Распространенность ТРС среди детей и подростков составляет 3-5% с пиком, приходящимся на возраст 7-9 лет, и последующим снижением этих значений [26,27]. Данные последних эпидемиологических исследований, проведенных на взрослой популяции, опровергли представления о снижении распространенности ТРС с возрастом.…”