Impact of Individual and Parental Determinants on the Developmental of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Purpose: To assess the effects of low birth weight, maternal and paternal mental and emotional health status, and time spent for viewing television or playing video games per day in the development of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) /Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Methods: The National Survey of Children’s Health (2011-2012) data was used for the analysis of 65,680 children from 6 to 17 years of age. Multivariate logistic regression technique was applied to find the association between low birth weight, time spent for viewing television or playing video games per day, maternal and paternal mental and emotional health status and ADD/ADHD controlling for age, gender and poverty level. Results: As compared to female children, male children had 2.5 times higher odds of developing ADD/ADHD. Age was also significantly associated with ADD/ADHD. Children of mothers with fair or poor mental and emotional health status had 1.8 times higher odds of developing ADD/ADHD as compared to children of mothers with excellent or very good mental and emotional health status. In addition, children whose father had fair or poor and good mental and emotional health status had 1.5 times increased odds of having ADD/ADHD as compared to children whose father had excellent or very good mental and emotional status. Conclusion: Parental mental and emotional health had significant association with the development of ADHD in their children. Six to seventeen years of age children whose mother or father had poor mental and emotional health conditions were more likely to have ADD/ADHD.