A Cross-Sectioual Study of Attention Deficit Hyperactiviey Disorder in 6～16 Year-old Children in Northern Shangdong Province / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective：To compare the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adolescents (12～16 years) and school-age children (6～11years) to provide reference data for a comprehensive intervention to children ADHD.Methods：A population-based questionnaire study was conducted among subjects aged 6～16 years sampled from schools in Northern Shandong.Totally 4263 children (adolescents 2358,school-age children 1905) were chosen by stratified-clustered-random sampling.The estimation of ADHD was investigated by asking the parents to complete ADHD questionnaires and subjects were followed up.The diagnosis for ADHD was made according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)cliterca,which was divided into three kinds of subtypes in accordance with distribution of symptom dimensions.Results：The total prevalence of ADHD was 6.4% in this sample,which was predominated by the inattentive type (ADHD-I ) (63.7％).The prevalence of ADHD was higher in males than in females (8.9% vs.4.1%,P<0.001),and lower in adolescents than in school-age children (5.3% vs.7.7%,P=0.002).Distribution of subtypes was different in ADHD children of different age.Compared with school-age children group,the hyperactive/impulsive type (ADHD-HI )and combined type (ADHD-C) were lower,and the inattentive type (ADHD-I )was higher in adolescent group (P<0.001).The prevalence of 3 symptomatic factors of inattention and 6 symptomatic factors of hyperactivity/impulsivity in adolescents ADHD was lower than that in school-age children ADHD.Conclusion：Inattention is central symptom for children ADHD.ADHD,symptom of hyperactivity/impulsivity especially in the elder groups have trends of lower prevalence rate.