Early Predictors of ADHD: Evidence from a Prospective Birth Cohort. Issue 12 (October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Oerbeck, Beate; Overgaard, Kristin Romvig; Pripp, Are Hugo; Reichborn-Kjennerud, Ted; Aase, Heidi; Zeiner, Pal
• Is Part Of: Journal of attention disorders. Volume 24:Issue 12(2020)
• Page Start: 1685
• Page End: 1692
• Publication Date: 2020-10
• Subjects: ADHD -- preschool -- predictors -- cohort study -- registry; Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder -- Periodicals; Attention -- Periodicals; 616.8589
• DOI: 10.1177/1087054717696765
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1087-0547

Abstract

Objective: To identify preschool predictors of registered ADHD diagnoses and compare two ADHD rating scales, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Conners' Parent Rating Scale (CPRS-R:S).Method: The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study (MoBa) is a prospective population-based cohort study. The sample were singletons whose mothers responded to MoBa questionnaires at child age 3 years ( n = 57, 986) and 5 years ( n = 32, 377). ADHD diagnoses were obtained from the Norwegian Patient Register. Predictors were child gender, development and symptoms, and maternal ADHD symptoms. We used Cox proportional hazard regression analyses.Results: In all final models, ADHD symptoms at age 3 and 5 years predicted later ADHD: Age 3, CBCL: hazard ratio (HR) = 3.23 (CI [2.59, 4.02]); age 5, CBCL: HR = 10.30 (CI [7.44, 14.26]); and age 5 CPRS-R:S: HR = 5.92 (CI [4.95, 7.07]).Conclusion: The findings underline the importance of taking early parent-reported symptoms seriously. Both rating scales were useful for predicting ADHD.