Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 102 (1996)The Prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Symptoms Among PrimarySchool Children in Sharjah, UAEStudent Authors: Amal B-HaroonFaculty Supervisors: Dr. A. Bener, Dr. N. PughAbstract:Objectives To estimate the prevalence of ADH symptoms among primary schoolchildren in Sharjah, UAE. To examine the relationship between ADH symptoms and theselected variables.Methods A cross sectional study was conducted in the UAE. The population was theprimary school children in Sharjah, UAE. We administered Conner’s teacherquestionnaire following the multistage stratified sampling technique. A total of 1110questionnaire was filled by the teachers of each surveyed school. The response ratewas 92.5%.Results The prevalence of children with deviance score is 29.7% in the generalpopulation. The prevalence of ADH symptoms was significantly associated with gender(boys 18.3%, girls 11.4%), academic performance (p=0.0003) and being the raisedby a single parent. Other family factors such as parent’s level of education, parent’snationality, family monthly income, multiple marriages in parents, parents relationshipwere not significant differences.Conclusion The prevalence of ADH symptoms is surprisingly high which reflect the fastdevelopment in the last 25 years. A great attention should be paid toward thepsychiatric problems among children. As well as further studies are needed.