Why are there such large geographical differences in the number of children with diagnoses?
The answer is what a research team led by sociologist Lasse Folke Henriksen from CBS will seek to provide. He has just received seven million kroner from the Independent Research Fund Denmark for the project.
For every child in Odense who receives an ADHD diagnosis, five children in Struer do. On Frederiksberg, one child receives the diagnosis for every three children in Favrskov. Nationally, the North Denmark Region has the highest number of diagnoses, while the Region of Southern Denmark and in particular Funen has the fewest.
The distribution of children with autism is similarly uneven across the country.
What explains the considerable geographical differences in the prevalence of psychiatric conditions such as ADHD and autism among children? A research team led by associate professor Lasse Folke Henriksen from CBS has received more than seven million kroner from the Independent Research Fund Denmark to investigate this.
Networks can be decisive
"Our hypothesis is that geographical inequalities in diagnoses are driven by networks. That networks, like the conditions themselves, cluster geographically," explains Lasse Folke Henriksen before elaborating:
"We have good reason to believe that the resources, practices and knowledge circulating in the networks around the children’s families, teachers, psychologists, doctors, psychiatrists and other professionals shape who is assessed and what the outcome of an assessment is."
In addition to using register data as an essential component of the study, the researchers will conduct fieldwork in geographical areas with notably low or high rates of diagnoses.
Lasse Folke Henriksen’s team will include sociologists, epidemiologists and psychologists. He has worked with network theories for several years, and at CBS he is part of a research group that studies dynamics in social networks. Several of his colleagues also work with organisation within the healthcare system.
No clear answers yet
Diagnosing ADHD and autism involves no clear biological markers. Instead, diagnoses rely on descriptions of a child’s behaviour and challenges provided by parents and professionals such as teachers, doctors and educational psychologists.
Existing research has still not identified the reason for the geographical variation in the prevalence of ADHD and autism diagnoses seen in many countries. A previous study by sociologist Peter Bearman from Columbia University has, however, indicated that networks may play a role.
In the new project, some of Lasse Folke Henriksen’s closest collaborators will be Kathrine Bang Madsen, an epidemiologist at the University of Southern Denmark, and psychologist Mads Bonde Ubbesen from Aarhus University Hospital.
The project’s formal title is ‘NeuroNet: Classification networks and spatial clustering in children with ADHD and ASD’. The grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark is part of 29 projects under the theme 'Psychiatric research', which aim to support improved prevention and treatment of mental health conditions.