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Spatial variation in prevalence

What is spatial variation in the prevalence of bipolar disorder?

Prevalence rates of bipolar disorder may differ across regions. Prevalence quantifies the proportion of individuals in a population who have a disease during a specific time period, while incidence refers to the number of new cases of disease that develop in a population during a specific time period. In disorders of short duration, incidence and prevalence rates may be similar, however with disorders of long duration such as with bipolar disorder there can be variation between the two. Point prevalence is the proportion of individuals who manifest a disorder at a given point in time, period measures the proportion of individuals who manifest a disorder during a specified period (e.g. one year), lifetime is the proportion of individuals in the population who have ever manifested a disorder who are alive on a given day and lifetime morbid risk also includes those deceased at the time of the assessment.

Is there variation in prevalence rates of bipolar disorder across countries?

Moderate quality evidence finds the lifetime prevalence rates of bipolar disorders are significantly higher in North America (2.9%), South America (3%), Australia (2.1%) and Europe (1.7%), than in the Middle East (1.1%), Africa (0.7%), and Asia (0.5%).

The 10-year prevalence of bipolar disorder in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh) is around 0.6%. The pooled prevalence of bipolar disorder in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region (Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Palestine, United Arab Emirates, and Tunisia) is around 0.7%. Current prevalence is around 1.9%, lifetime prevalence is around 0.2%, and period (6-12 month) prevalence is around 0.6% in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region.

October 2021

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Last updated at: 4:31 pm, 21st April 2022
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