About 1.6 million cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been diagnosed in American elementary school children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In a new report the CDC said that about half of the children in whom the disorder was diagnosed had also been identified as having a learning disability. “This report serves as a snapshot of a condition that has important consequences for the development of school age children,” said the CDC's acting director, David Fleming. “However, much more needs to be learned about ADHD and about the spectrum of impairments associated with ADHD.”
The figures mean that 7% of US children aged 6 to 11 have the disorder. The results were obtained from national surveys conducted in 1997 and 1998, including interviews with family members of 8647 children between the ages of 6 and 11.
Rates of diagnosis of ADHD are twice as high in white children as in Hispanic and black children. Children with a diagnosis of learning disability alone were more likely than other children to live in a low income or single mother household, and children from families with health insurance were more likely to have a diagnosis of ADHD without a learning disability.
Footnotes
The CDC's report is available at www.cdc.gov/nchs