Anxiety and school absenteeism without permission among adolescents in 69 low- and middle-income countries.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Anxiety disorders are common among adolescents. In high-income countries, anxiety is a known contributor to truancy and school refusal, but this association has been understudied in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Methods

We used complex samples analysis to examine the association between self-reported worry-induced insomnia (an indicator of anxiety) and unauthorized school absenteeism among 268,142 adolescents from 69 LMICs that participated in the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS).

Results

The median proportion of students who reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety most or all of the time during the previous year was 11.4% (range: 3.6%-28.2%); in 44 of the 69 countries, girls had a significantly higher prevalence of anxiety tha

SUBMITTER: Dalforno RW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10953857 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature