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

Project No. 32 (1993)The Prevalence & Correlates of Behavioral Disturbances Among PrimarySchool Children in Al Ain, UAEStudent Authors: Moza Ali Saieh Al KuwaitiFaculty Supervisors: Dr. M.M. Hossain, Dr. G.H. AbsoodAbstract:Objectives To estimate the prevalence of behavioural disturbances among primaryschool children in Al Ain, UAE during January 1993. And to examine the relationshipsbetween behavioural disturbances and selected variables.Methods 2142 primary school children were selected through a multi-phase multistagerandom sampling method. The ages ranged from 5.5-16.7 years. 2100 (98%)were included for teachers assessment using Rutter B2 scale in first stage of study. Inthe second stage only 99 of them could be reached for the mother interview usingRutter A2 scale and Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD). Mothers andchildren short questionnaires were applied for sociodemographic data collection.Results The prevalence of children with deviant score were 13.5% in the generalpopulation. 51.1% of the deviant children had conduct, 35.4% had emotional, and13.4% had undifferentiated disorders. The overall prevalence of these disorders wassignificantly associated with age (P=.0004), gender (boys: 16.3% girls 10.2%) andacademic performance level (P