Prevalence of mental health conditions in Spanish child and youth population. Scoping review.

Abstract

The epidemiological reality in relation to mental health is one of the most vulnerable scenarios due to its social, relational and vital development repercussions on human beings. Thus, it is considered necessary to define and analyse the prevalence of child-adolescent mental health. A scoping review was carried out in databases and metasearch engines (PubMed, Cuiden, Cochrane Library, Lilacs, CINAHL and Dialnet), as well as a consultation of the National Health Survey and gray literature. The reading of the material found followed the next strategy: for the articles (1) 22 articles found by title and abstract and (2) critical reading focused on prevalence data; for the rest of the material, reading of titles and indexes focused on prevalence data. The prevalent processes found were: emotional and behavioral disorders; sexual abuse of the child-youth population; bullying, eating disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. The discussion is focussed on pointing out that the objective data on prevalence is variable, dispersed and, in addition, corresponds to narrative review studies and studies in institutionalized populations, which implies biases. Most of the reports analyzed correspond to work carried out by non-nursing professionals, when they are who can provide a broader perspective for the sake of care. Therefore, it is considered necessary to carry out studies of this subject.