New Article: Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Psychiatric Traits and Diagnoses within a Community-based Sample of Children and Youth

Racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders have been reported, but have not accounted for the prevalence of the traits that underlie these disorders. Examining rates of diagnoses in relation to traits may yield a clearer understanding of the degree to which racial/ethnic minority youth in Canada differ in their access to care. We sought to examine differences in self/parent-reported rates of diagnoses for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety disorders after adjusting for differences in trait levels between youth from three racial/ethnic groups: White, South Asian and East Asian.

We collected parent or self-reported ratings of OCD, ADHD and anxiety traits and diagnoses for 6- to 17-year-olds from a Canadian general population sample (Spit for Science). We examined racial/ethnic differences in trait levels and the odds of reporting a diagnosis using mixed-effects linear models and logistic regression models.

East Asian (N = 1301) and South Asian (N = 730) youth reported significantly higher levels of OCD and anxiety traits than White youth (N = 6896). East Asian and South Asian youth had significantly lower odds of reporting a diagnosis for OCD (odds ratio [OR]_{East Asian} = 0.08 [0.02, 0.41]; OR_{South Asian}= 0.05 [0.00, 0.81]), ADHD (OR_{East Asian} = 0.27 [0.16, 0.45]; OR_{South Asian}= 0.09 [0.03, 0.30]) and anxiety (OR_{East Asian} = 0.21 [0.11, 0.39]; OR_{South Asian} = 0.12 [0.05, 0.32]) than White youth after accounting for psychiatric trait levels.

These results suggest a discrepancy between trait levels of OCD, ADHD and anxiety and rates of diagnoses for East Asian and South Asian youth. This discrepancy may be due to increased barriers for ethnically diverse youth to access mental health care. Efforts to understand and mitigate these barriers in Canada are needed.