1 in 9 US children diagnosed with ADHD
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Key takeaways:
- In the United States, 11.4% of children have ever received a diagnosis of ADHD.
- Among them, 77.9% had a co-occurring disorder such as anxiety or depression.
Approximately one in nine children in the United States had ever received an ADHD diagnosis as of 2022, according to research published in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology.
ADHD is among the most common pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders, and evidence indicates that prescriptions for ADHD medications jumped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Approximately 7.1 million U.S. children have been diagnosed with ADHD as of 2022 and could benefit from referrals, service delivery and evidence-based treatment,” Melissa L. Danielson, MSPH, a statistician at the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, told Healio.
“Our group at CDC has been using the National Survey of Children’s Health to track the prevalence of ADHD diagnosis and treatment among children and adolescents for several decades in order to ensure that the needs of children with ADHD are met by health care providers and other partners,” Danielson said.
Danielson and colleagues studied data from the 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health, a survey of parents about their children, aged 3 to 17 years, conducted by online and mail methodology in which survey responses are weighted to produce nationally representative estimates, “in this case of ADHD diagnosis, ADHD severity, co-occurring mental, behavioral and developmental conditions, and receipt of ADHD treatment,” Danielson said.
In 45,169 surveys reviewed by the authors, 11.4% of all children included in the survey had ever received an ADHD diagnosis, and 10.5% had current ADHD. Among those with a current ADHD diagnosis, 58.1% had moderate or severe ADHD, 53.6% received ADHD medication, 44.1% received behavioral treatment, 30.1% received no treatment and 77.9% had at least one co-occurring disorder such as anxiety, depression, developmental delay and autism spectrum disorder.
The researchers also noticed demographic changes in their results. Sex difference for an ADHD diagnosis, for example, narrowed from a boy-to-girl ratio of 2:1 in 2016 to 1.8:1 in 2022. Further, between 2020 and 2021, there was an increase in stimulant prescriptions among girls aged 10 to 19 years that was not reflected in boys or younger girls.
“Given that awareness of ADHD in children and adolescents has increased somewhat steadily over the past few decades and that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with an increase in pediatric mental health symptoms, a change in the ADHD diagnosis and treatment during 2022 was not unexpected,” Danielson said.
References:
Approximately one in nine U.S. children diagnosed with ADHD, as new national study highlights an “ever-expanding” public health concern. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1045290. Published May 23, 2024. Accessed May 23, 2024.
Danielson ML, et al. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2024;doi:10.1080/15374416.2024.2335625.
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