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Psychiatric status among stepchildren and domestic and international adoptees in Denmark. A comparative nationwide register-based study

University of Copenhagen, Institute of Public Health, Section of General Practice, Unit of Women and Gender Research in Medicine, Copenhagen, Denmark, mela{at}pubhealth.ku.dk

Anne Maj Christensen

University of Copenhagen, Institute of Public Health, Section of General Practice, Unit of Women and Gender Research in Medicine, Copenhagen, Denmark

Birgit Petersson

University of Copenhagen, Institute of Public Health, Section of General Practice, Unit of Women and Gender Research in Medicine, Copenhagen, Denmark

Aims: To investigate adoptees’ psychiatric contact compared with non-adoptees and to clarify the related diagnoses. Method: Observational, nationwide, register-based study, where correlations between psychiatric, demographic and socioeconomic variables were analyzed for adoptees compared with non-adoptees. The study period is 1992—2008. The setting is Denmark, encompassing seven different types of adoptees registered from 1988 to 2005 (n = 13,524). The non-adoptees (n = 839,989) are matched on sex, age and residence. Various comparison models are designed: one with delayed entries (17 years) shows a 5.0% psychiatric contact prevalence for non-adoptees and 9.2% for adoptees (adjusted odds ratio: 2.91). Another design without delayed entries (2 years) shows a 2% prevalence for non-adoptees and 3.9% for adoptees (adjusted odds ratio 2.65). p-values <0.0005. Results: Only one type of adoptee: ‘‘registered partner’s adoption of the other partner’s child’’ has a lower risk than non-adoptees (odds ratio: 0.26). Comparison within the same birth region shows a significant increased risk for most adoption types. More adoptees than non-adoptees have more than one contact. Age at adoption is an additional risk factor for4one year only. The most frequent diagnosis is ‘‘Inherent or acquired brain suffering’’ (ICD-10: F50 — F99). Conclusions: The results stress that ‘‘adoptee’’ is an independent risk factor for psychiatric contact for international as well as for Danish adoptees. Danish stepchildren have a higher risk than non-adopted Danish children, while ‘‘registered partner’s child adopted by the other partner’’ have a lower risk than non-adopted Danish children.

Key Words: Adoptees • psychiatric contacts and diagnoses

This version was published on August 1, 2009

Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, Vol. 37, No. 6, 604-612 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1403494809105799


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