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Early development in children that are later diagnosed with disorders of attention and activity: a longitudinal study in the Danish National Birth Cohort

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Abstract

Not much is known about the early development in children that are later diagnosed with disorders of attention and activity (ADHD). Using prospective information collected from mothers in the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC), we investigated if developmental deviations in the first years of life are associated with later ADHD. In the DNBC 76,286 mothers were interviewed about their child’s development and behaviour at age 6 and 18 months. At the end of follow-up, when the children were 8–14 years of age, 2034 were registered in Danish health registers with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD. The Hazard Ratio of ADHD was estimated using Cox regression model. At 6 months of age deviations in development showed associations with the child later being diagnosed with ADHD such as duration of breastfeeding, motor functioning, and incessant crying. At 18 months, many observations clearly associated with ADHD as for example the child not being able to fetch things on request [HR 3.0 (95 % CI 2.4; 3.7)], or the child being significantly more active than average [HR 2.0 (95 % CI 1.8; 2.2)]. An association to ADHD was shown, especially at 18 months, if the mother found it difficult to handle the child [HR 2.9 (95 % CI 2.4–3.5)]. However, it goes for all observations that the positive predictive values were low. Many children with ADHD showed signs of developmental deviations during the first years of their life. In general, however, ADHD cannot be identified solely on basis of the questions in DNBC.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from The Tryg Foundation and the Central Denmark Region.

The Danish National Research Foundation has established the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre that initiated and created the Danish National Birth Cohort. The cohort is furthermore a result of a major grant from this Foundation. Additional support for the Danish National Birth Cohort is obtained from the Pharmacy Foundation, the Egmont Foundation, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, and the Health Insurance Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Department, Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aarhus University Hospital, Skovagervej 2, 8240, Risskov, Denmark

    Sanne Lemcke & Per H. Thomsen

  2. Department of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Erik T. Parner & Merete Bjerrum

  3. Research Unit for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark

    Marlene B. Lauritsen

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  1. Sanne Lemcke
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  2. Erik T. Parner
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  3. Merete Bjerrum
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  4. Per H. Thomsen
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  5. Marlene B. Lauritsen
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Correspondence to Sanne Lemcke.

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Conflict of interest

Per Hove Thomsen has received speaker’s honoraria from Shire, Novartis, and HB-Pharma within the last 3 years. He is no member of any advisory boards, nor does he hold any stocks. The other authors have no conflicts of interests to declare.

Ethics

At the enrolment in the DNBC, the mothers gave their consent to the data being used for research purposes in future, and the steering committee for the DNBC gave their permission to use the data for the present study. The study was approved by the Danish National Board of Health and registered in the Danish Data Protection Agency.

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Lemcke, S., Parner, E.T., Bjerrum, M. et al. Early development in children that are later diagnosed with disorders of attention and activity: a longitudinal study in the Danish National Birth Cohort. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 25, 1055–1066 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-016-0825-6

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