Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among urban school children

Abstract

The first reliable description of ADHD comes from England in early 20 th century. The prevalence of this disorder varies from 1% to 20% depending on the diagnostic criteria, the population of children studied and the source of information. Around 60% of ADHD children will carry some of their behavior in adulthood. 1 The cardinal symptoms are inappropriate levels of inattentiveness, motor over-activity and impulsivity. The symptoms must appear in at least two contexts, for duration of atleast 6 months, have an onset before age of 7 years and cause significant functional impairment. 2 Recent reports highlight behavioral, social, familial and academic difficulties in school age children with ADHD as compared to their counterparts without ADHD. 3

Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, gender difference and its co morbidity among urban school children in a city of southern Rajasthan, India

“…[11][12][13][14] The prevalence of 6.3% is consistent with other Indian studies in school age children. 11,15 Prevalence in present study was found to be low when compared with some other studies reported from India and from western countries. 12,13,16,17 Most recent Indian study done by HS Ramaya et al, found that the prevalence of ADHD in their study was 1.3% which was much lower than our results.…”

“…A study done by Rajeshwari Mannapur et al, also found ADHD was significantly more prevalent in boys than girls, with male to female ratio of 3.6:1. 15 Similarly Mohamed F et al, also reported a higher prevalence of ADHD in boys than girls with the ratio 2.7:1 the gender wise differences in prevalence strengthen the evidence for a biologically based, often genetically transmitted, etiology for hyperkinetic disorder. 21 Other studies done in Western countries also reported a greater incidence of ADHD in boys than in girls.…”

“…16 Similar results were reported by Rajeshwari Mannapur et al, they found that out of 23 ADHD subjects, 11(47.82%) were hyperactive /impulsive type, 7 (30.45%) were inattentive type and 5 (21.73%) were diagnosed to have combined type of ADHD. 15 In contrast, ADHD-combined type was the most commonly diagnosed sub-type 53.8% in a study done in Pakistan by Qureshi et al, in 2003. 26 Our results were consistent with another study on the prevalence of subtype of ADHD by Malhi et al, which estimated 50% of children diagnosed to be ADHD-hyperactive type, 35% were ADHDinattentive type and only 15% were ADHD-Combined type.…”

“…Rajeshwari Mannapur et al, also showed lower prevalence of only 2.3%. 15,18 Epidemiological studies reveal prevalence rates of ADHD ranging widely from 1-23% depending upon the diagnostic tool used and the population sample as shown in two meta-analysis. 19,20 ADHD was found to be more common in male (73.7%) in comparison to female students (26.3%).…”

“…14,22 In a study conducted by Gratz et al, inferred that ADHD was much more common among males than females, the ratio ranging from 2:1 to 10:1 respectively, various Indian studies have reported ADHD to be 3.3 to 7.7 times more common among boys than girls. [15][16][17][18]23,24 Most recent Indian study done by HS Ramaya et al, found male to female ratio of 1.6:1. 18 A recent metaanalysis of studies done in last decade gives a pooled prevalence of male is to female ratio of 2.4:1, which is consistent with the present study.…”