Rising prevalence of parent-reported learning disabilities among U.S. children and adolescents aged 6-17 years: NSCH, 2016-2023.

ABSTRACT: The prevalence of learning disabilities (LD) among children is a critical public health issue; however, recent LD prevalence estimates among children and adolescents aged 6-17 years, as reported by the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), remain largely unexplored. Data for this population-based cross-sectional study were obtained from NSCH to estimate the prevalence of LD diagnosis among U.S. children at both national and state levels, and to inspect the 8-year trends in these estimates from 2016 to 2023. Among 221,244 U.S. children, 20,644 had a history of LD diagnosis, with a weighted prevalence of 8.85% (95% CI = 8.59-9.10). Of these, 19,289 were currently diagnosed with LD, yielding a weighted prevalence of 8.26% (95% CI = 8.01-8.51). From 2016 to 2023, the prevalence of ever-

SUBMITTER: Xu C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12543174 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature