Two years before an ADHD diagnosis, youth with ADHD are twice as likely to use healthcare services compared with youth without the condition, according to a study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Vibhore Prasad, PhD, and colleagues used EHR data and linked hospital records from 1998 to 2015 to compare the use of healthcare resources among 8,127 children and young people (CYP; aged 4-17) with ADHD in the two years before diagnosis versus 40,136 matched non-ADHD controls. CYP with ADHD used healthcare services twice as often as controls (general practitioner [GP]: rate ratio, 2.0; hospital: rate ratio, 1.8). The investigators noted a wide variety of reasons for healthcare use. Among CYP with versus without ADHD, the most significant association for GP visits was for mental and behavioral disorders (OR, 25.2). “These contacts may be an opportunity for earlier recognition and diagnosis of ADHD,” the authors write.
