The prevalence of mental health problems in sub-Saharan adolescents: A systematic review
Findings from epidemiological studies, published between 2008 and 2020, documenting the prevalence of mental health problems in adolescents from across sub-Saharan Africa are synthesised to form a qualitative synthesis.
Abstract
The search yielded 1 549 records of which 316 studies were assessed for eligibility and 51 met the inclusion criteria. We present a qualitative synthesis of 37 of these 51 included articles. The other 14 studies reporting prevalence rates for adolescents living with HIV are published elsewhere. The prevalence of depression, anxiety disorders, emotional and behavioural difficulties, posttraumatic stress and suicidal behaviour in the general adolescent population and selected at-risk groups in 16 sub-Saharan countries (with a total population of 97 616 adolescents) are reported.