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ADHD Affects 3.5% of US Children, New Study Estimates
An estimated 3.5% of children in the United States meet DSM-5 criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to study findings published online ahead of print in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
The estimate stems from newly available data from the US Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which enrolled 11,878 children ages 9 and 10 at baseline.
Researchers calculated ADHD prevalence over four ADHD severity thresholds. The most stringent tier required convergence of the Computerized Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children (K-SADS-COMP) score with ratings from parents and teachers. The study also looked at comorbidity and extracted genotyping data to calculate polygenic risk scores for patients in each ADHD phenotype.
The prevalence of ADHD in 9- and 10-year-old children was 3.53% when K-SADS-COMP score converged with parent and teacher ratings to support the diagnosis, according to the study.
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Among children with ADHD, 70% had a comorbid psychiatric disorder. After controlling for overlapping comorbidity, and ruling out for psychosis and low IQ, 30.9% had a comorbid disruptive behavior disorder, 27.4% had an anxiety or fear disorder, and 2.1% had a mood disorder.
Children in the top decile of polygenic load had a 63% increased chance of having ADHD compared with those in the bottom half of polygenic load. Researchers noted the association existed solely for the most stringent ADHD phenotype and not for those with less strict diagnostic criteria.
“This fresh estimate of national prevalence of ADHD in the United States suggests that the DSM-5 definition requiring multiple informants yields a prevalence of about 3.5%,” the study concluded. “Results may inform further ADHD studies in the ABCD sample.”
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