title: Gender-age interaction in incidence rates of childhood emotional disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The post-pubertal association of female gender with emotional disorder is a robust finding. However, studies exploring the association of gender and emotional disorders before puberty are few and present diverging results. The aim of this study was to present gender-specific incidence rates of emotional disorders throughout childhood.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a population-based cohort study of 907,806 Danish 3- to 18-year-olds. The outcome was assignment of an emotional disorder diagnosis based on in-patient and out-patient data from The Danish Psychiatric Central Register. Outcome measures were incidence rates and cumulative incidences for unipolar depressive disorder (ICD-10: F32-F33), anxiety disorders (ICD-10: F40-F42), and emotional disorders with onset specific to childhood (ICD-10: F93).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pre-pubertal incidence rates for depressive and anxiety disorders were higher for boys than girls. At age 12 years the pattern reversed. The cumulative incidence for any emotional disorder (F32-F33, F40-F42, F93) on the 11th birthday was 0.52% (95% CI 0.50-0.55) for boys and 0.31% (95% CI 0.29-0.33) for girls. On the 19th birthday cumulative incidence was 2.33% (95% CI 2.24-2.43) for boys and 3.77% (95% CI 3.64-3.90) for girls. The pre-pubertal male preponderance was also significant for depressive disorders (F32-F33, p = 0.00144) and anxiety disorders (F40-F42, F93, p < 0.00001) separately.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Emotional disorders seem to display a male preponderance before the age of 12 years and a female preponderance thereafter. Studies exploring this gender-age interaction are needed. Still, the results question the general assumption that females throughout the lifespan are more at risk for emotional disorders than males.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Odense, Research Unit,University of Southern Denmark,Odense C,Denmark.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wesselhoeft
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Register-Based Research, Business and Social Sciences,Aarhus University,Aarhus,Denmark.
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Register-Based Research, Business and Social Sciences,Aarhus University,Aarhus,Denmark.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Mortensen
authors.affiliation: The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research,iPSYCH,Denmark.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mors
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Odense, Research Unit,University of Southern Denmark,Odense C,Denmark.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bilenberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000367:Age Factors; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011627:Puberty; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: puberty