Study Finds Minority Kids Less Likely to Be Diagnosed, Treated for ADHD
Finding points to possible disparities in care.
Minority children are significantly less likely than their white peers to be diagnosed or treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), new research shows.
The study, which is published online June 24 and in the July print issue of the journal Pediatrics, followed more than 17,000 children across the nation from kindergarten to eighth grade. Researchers regularly asked parents if their children had been diagnosed with ADHD.
Even after taking into account a host of factors that may influence behavior, attention and access to health care, researchers found that Hispanic and Asian children and those of other races were about half as likely to receive a diagnosis as whites. Blacks were about two-thirds less likely to be recognized as having problems with attention or hyperactivity as whites.
In addition, when minority children were diagnosed, they were less likely to receive medication than white kids with ADHD, the investigators found.
The study can’t say, however, whether the differences mean that ADHD is being underdiagnosed in minorities or overdiagnosed in whites. Previous research has raised both possibilities.
A study published in the journal Clinical Psychology Review in 2009, for example, found that despite having more symptoms of distractibility and hyperactivity, black children were diagnosed with ADHD less often than whites.