Prevalence of Coronary Artery Diseases Among Adult Women Residents of Tehran: A Cross-Sectional Report From Tehran Cohort Study (TeCS).

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are a largely heterogeneous group of chronic neurological disorders that manifest early in life and alter the trajectory of typical nervous-system development, resulting in behavioral difficulties and reduced adaptability of the affected individual to societal and occupational contexts (–). In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the NDD classification includes intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), along with sparser or unspecified conditions. These disorders were also unified in the recently added “Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental disorders” chapter of the International Classification of Diseases, 11th revision. Despite an abundance of literature on specific NDDs, their prevalences vary drastically by region, time period, and data-collection methodology (–). According to the GBD 2021 disease and injury burden analyses, approximately 235 million children under 15 years across 204 countries were affected with ASD, ADHD or ID (), with estimated prevalences per 100,000 children of 857 for ASD, 1,662 for ADHD, and 1,626 for ID (). Beyond limitations in awareness and service availability, the overlapping symptoms and high comorbidity rates inherent to NDDs complicate detection, diagnosis, care and treatment across the life course (, –). Interpreting registry data from Kazakhstan requires understanding how these conditions are diagnosed and recorded. Throughout the study period, mental and behavioral disorders were diagnosed under the ICD-10 (ICD-11 has not yet been adopted in routine clinical practice). The diagnosis of ASD is the responsibility of child psychiatrists working in regional mental-health centers: a child with a suspected disorder is referred from primary care or from a Psychological–Medical–Pedagogical Consultation (PMPC), the psychiatrist establishes an ICD-10 diagnosis, and first-time diagnoses are entered into the state electronic health information system and the statistical register within a few working days. ADHD, by contrast, is frequently first encountered by pediatricians or family physicians and is not subject to the same mandatory psychiatric-registration pathway. These features directly affect detection, case registration and the apparent dynamics of prevalence.