Graph of Day: Psychiatric Symptoms in Western Children vs. Hunter-Gatherer Children

The hunter-gatherer children are doing better

A new paper by Dennis Ougrin and colleagues compares the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among children in a Western population (a large sample from England) with the prevalence among children in a hunter-gatherer tribe (the Hadza of Tanzania). As the figure below shows, the Western children scored higher on most symptom types, with the authors concluding that “3.6% of Hadza children met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder compared to 11.8% of English children.”

An important caveat: Although the Western sample was large (18,029 participants), the Hadza sample was small (113 participants). Furthermore, the Hadza are just one group, and shouldn’t be taken to represent all hunter-gatherers. Still, in lieu of more data, these findings should slightly increase our prior that children living in hunter-gatherer societies have a lower incidence of most psychiatric problems than children living in the West.

If so, what might account for this pattern? At this stage, we can only speculate. Plausible suggestions, however, include high levels of social support among the Hadza, coupled with plenty of sun and exercise.

The paper is titled “The Prevalence of Behavioural Symptoms and Psychiatric Disorders in Hadza Children,” and was published in Scientific Reports. Here’s the abstract:

The worldwide pooled prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children is 13.4%. Studying the prevalence of childhood psychiatric disorders across radically different economic systems and social structures could indicate universal factors leading to their development. The prevalence of childhood psychiatric disorders in a mixed-subsistence foraging society has not been studied. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Development and Well-Being Assessment were used to compare the prevalence of behavioural symptoms and psychiatric disorders in Hadza children aged 5–16 years (n = 113) to a nationally representative sample from England (n = 18,029) using a cross-sectional study design. Emotional problems, conduct problems and hyperactivity were lower in the Hadza children. Prosocial behaviour and peer problems were higher in Hadza children. 3.6% of Hadza children met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder compared to 11.8% of English children. All psychiatric disorders in Hadza children were co-morbid with autism spectrum disorder. No child from the Hadza group met the criteria for an emotional, behaviour or eating disorder. Further work should study the factors which lead to the different prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Hadza children.

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