Citation

Bordin IAS, Duarte CS, Ribeiro WS, Paula CS, Coutinho ESF, Sourander A, Rønning JA. Int. J. Methods Psychiatr. Res. 2018; 27(2): e1605.

Affiliation

Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/mpr.1605

PMID

29341329

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate a study design that could be useful in low-resource and violent urban settings and to estimate the prevalence of child violence exposure (at home, community, and school) and child mental health problems in a low-income medium-size city.

METHODS: The Itaboraí Youth Study is a Norway-Brazil collaborative longitudinal study conducted in Itaboraí city (n = 1409, 6-15 year olds). A 3-stage probabilistic sampling plan (random selection of census units, eligible households, and target child) generated sampling weights that were used to obtain estimates of population prevalence rates.

RESULTS: Study strengths include previous pilot study and focus groups (testing procedures and comprehension of questionnaire items), longitudinal design (2 assessment periods with a mean interval of 12.9 months), high response rate (>80%), use of standardized instruments, different informants (mother and adolescent), face-to-face interviews to avoid errors due to the high frequency of low-educated respondents, and information gathered on a variety of potential predictors and protective factors. Children and adolescents presented relevant levels of violence exposure and clinical mental health problems.

CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence estimates are probably valid to other Brazilian low-income medium-size cities due to similarities in terms of precarious living conditions. Described study methods could be useful in other poor and violent world regions.

Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

child psychiatry; epidemiology; longitudinal studies; prevalence; violence