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Preterm Individuals Have Increased ADHD Diagnosis Risk in Adulthood
Individuals born before 37 weeks gestational age do not report higher levels of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms as adults, but they have a higher risk of receiving an ADHD diagnosis in adulthood. Researchers published the findings in Pediatric Research.
“Previous evidence [regarding gestational age and adult ADHD] has consisted of limited sample sizes of adults and used different methods with inconsistent findings,” wrote study lead author Rachel Robinson, a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland, and coauthors. “This study assessed adult self-reported symptoms across 8 harmonized cohorts and contrasted the findings with diagnosed ADHD in a population-based register-linkage study.”
The individual participant data meta-analysis on self-reported ADHD symptoms included a total of 1385 individuals born before 37 weeks gestational age (preterm) and 1633 individuals born at or later than 37 weeks (term). Participants were ages 18 through 36 years at the time of ADHD symptom self-report.
According to the meta-analysis, levels of ADHD symptoms were similar in both the preterm and term-born groups.
Next, researchers looked at a population-based register-linkage study of all live births in Finland between 1987 and 1998. The data spanned 37,538 preterm adults and 691,616 term-born adults.
Related: Adult ADHD Increases Risk for a Wide Range of Physical Conditions
Preterm adults had a 1.26 relative risk of being diagnosed with ADHD compared with term-born adults, researchers found. As gestational age and birth weight increased among individuals born preterm, adult ADHD risk decreased.
“Pinpointing that preterms or specific preterm and birth weight groups are at a slightly increased risk of receiving ADHD diagnosis in adulthood than others may pave the way for targeted interventions to reduce the burden,” researchers wrote.
“On the other hand, the lack of differences in self-reported ADHD symptoms between preterm and term-born adults delivers a positive message for the preterm-born individuals themselves, their families, and healthcare professionals.”
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