Epidemiology
11%–13.9%
9.6%–10.9%
8.0%–9.5%
5.6%–7.9%
ADHD's global prevalence is estimated at 3 to 5 percent in people under the age of 19. There is, however, both geographical and local variability among studies. Children in North America appear to have a higher rate of ADHD than children in Africa and the Middle East. Published studies have found rates of ADHD as low as 2 percent and as high as 14 percent among school-aged children. The rates of diagnosis and treatment of ADHD are also much higher on the east cast of the United States than on its west coast. The frequency of the diagnosis differs between male children (10%) and female children (4%) in the United States. This difference between genders may reflect either a difference in susceptibility or that females with ADHD are less likely to be diagnosed than males.
Rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment have increased in both the UK and the US since the 1970s. In the UK an estimated 0.5 per 1,000 children had ADHD in the 1970s, while 3 per 1,000 received ADHD medications in the late 1990s. In the US in the 1970s 12 per 1,000 children had the diagnosis, while in the late 1990s 34 per 1,000 had the diagnosis and the numbers continue to increase.
In the UK in 2003 a prevalence of 3.6 percent is reported in male children and less than 1 percent is reported in female children.
Read more about this topic: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder