ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1609254
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Insights into Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism Spectrum Disorder and its ComorbiditiesView all 5 articles
Trends and cross-country inequalities in the global burden of neurodevelopmental disorders among children aged 0-14 from 1990 to 2021
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Child Healthcare, Northwest University First Hospital, Xi’an, China
- 2Haiyuan College, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
- 3Department of Pediatrics, Northwest University First Hospital, Xi’an, China
- 4Department of Pharmacy, Northwest University First Hospital, Xi’an, China
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ABSTRACT Background: To evaluate the trends and cross-country inequalities of three common neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs): Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Idiopathic developmental intellectual disability (IDID) among children aged 0–14, and further predict their changes to 2046. Methods: The estimates for prevalence of ASD, ADHD and IDID among children aged 0–14 across 204 countries were extracted from Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021. Joinpoint regression analysis was used to calculate the average annual percentage changes (AAPC). The slope index of inequality (SII) and concentration index recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) were used to quantify the inequality of these three NDD burdens between countries with different Sociodemographic Index (SDI). Finally, the Nordpred model was used to predict the disease burden of NDDs in 2046. Results: The AAPC in prevalence of the three NDDs among children aged 0–14 worldwide from 1990 to 2021 were as follows: ASD 0.09, ADHD –0.08, and IDID –0.86. The SII changed from 27.09 in 1990 to 38.36 in 2021 for ASD, from 1402.78 in 1990 to 1402.76 in 2021 for ADHD, and from –594.52 in 1990 to –545.94 in 2021 for IDID. The concentration index showed 0.15 in 1990 and 0.19 in 2021 for ASD, 0.07 in 1990 and 0.02 in 2021 for ADHD, and 0.44 in 1990 and 0.39 in 2021 for IDID. Compared to 2021, the age-standardized prevalence rates (ASPR) in 2046 for the three NDDs showed a slight decrease in ASD and ADHD, and a slight increase in IDID. Conclusions: As a major public health concern, the global burden of NDDs in children exhibited distinct trends from 1990 to 2021: an increasing trend for ASD, and decreasing trends for ADHD and IDID. Health inequalities persist across these conditions. The burdens of ASD and ADHD are primarily concentrated in high-SDI countries/territories, whereas the burden of IDID is more prevalent in low-SDI countries/territories. Therefore, targeted public health strategies and equitable allocation of healthcare resources are essential to effectively mitigate the burden of NDDs.
Keywords: Neurodevelopmental disorders, Children, health inequalities, Prevalence, Trends, prediction
Received: 10 Apr 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jia, Kong, Zhao and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yu Wang, Department of Pharmacy, Northwest University First Hospital, Xi’an, China
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