This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1403494809105799v1 37/6/604    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Laubjerg, M. Articles by Petersson, B. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Laubjerg, M. Articles by Petersson, B. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

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


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?