Mental Health among children and youth in the Skopje Region for the year 2021

Zeqiri, Besim and Simonovska, Valentina and Miloseva, Lence (2023) Mental Health among children and youth in the Skopje Region for the year 2021. Medical Journal - Medicus, 28 (1). pp. 73-78. ISSN 1409-6366 UDC 61

Text Besim Zekiri & Valentina Simonovska& Lence Miloseva.pdf Download (614kB)

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Introduction: Mental health is a state of mental well-being enabling people to cope with life’s stresses, realize
their potential, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. Risks of mental health disorders
can manifest at all stages of life, but those that occur during developmentally sensitive periods, especially early
childhood, are harmful.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to give a complete overview of the incidence of mental illness in children and
school children and youth in the Skopje region for the year 2021 in the outpatient - polyclinic activity.
Research methodology: As a working material, a standard summary report on the established morbidity in the
primary health care offices of small, school children and youth was used. The social-medical work method and
descriptive statistics methods were used.
Results and discussion: In 2021, in health institutions (practices) that provide health care for small and school
children in the area of Skopje region, there were reports of disorders from 249 practices that examined small
children and 137 practices for school children. A total of 462,895 visits were made in these clinics. In the structure
of the total determined morbidity, mental disorders in young children amount to 0.55%. The distribution of mental
disorders in this group of children is the highest (1.27%) in males aged 5-6 years. The number of disorders of the
“Disorders in psychological development” group is the highest, i.e. 273 male children and 146 female children. In the
total morbidity determined, mental disorders among school children and youth amount to 2.05%. According to the
age distribution, children aged 15-19 years are mostly represented, excluding the youth. Disorders in psychological
development occur as early as the age of 7-9 years and in a much larger number compared to young children. One
male child aged 7-9 out of 100 children visited a family physician due to psychological development disorders. The
highest percentage of young children who visited family doctors due to mental disorders is in the municipality of
Centar (16.4%). Second is the municipality of Kisela Voda (16.3%) and third - is the municipality of Gjorce Petrov (15.4%).
In the municipality of Zelenikovo, there is no registered disease of this type among children aged 0-6 years. The
highest percentage of school children who visited family doctors due to mental disorders is in the municipality of
Aerodrom (16.5%). Second, comes the municipality of Karposh (14.1%) and third place is the municipality of
Gazi Baba (11,7%).
Conclusion: The data show that urban municipalities have a higher number of reported mental disorders compared
to the rural ones for both analyzed groups of children. However, a clear answer should be found as to what the
reason behind this condition might be. Is there a difference in the awareness of parents and their care for children
with this type of disorder, or in rural areas this type of disease occurs less often. Among young children (0-6 years
old), according to gender representation, male children with this type of disorder (0.62%) visited a doctor more
often than female children (0.47%). The largest number of male children, 118, visited a doctor due to a disorder in
psychological development at the age of 3-4 years. In girls, these disorders are observed twice less than in boys.
There are mental disorders that are identified at the earliest age of 2 months, which speaks of the awareness of
parents and their concern for the mental health of their children. The data confirms that parents continue to seek
ways and services to treat their children at higher levels of health care, as well.
Keywords: mental health, young children, school children, health condition, polyclinic activity.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Medical and Health Sciences > Basic medicine Medical and Health Sciences > Clinical medicine
Divisions:	Faculty of Medical Science
Depositing User:	Lence Miloseva
Date Deposited:	30 Nov 2023 12:25
Last Modified:	30 Nov 2023 12:25
URI:	https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/32687

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