Epidemiological aspects of a sample of Egyptian children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in hospital setting

Abstract EN

Background: Although ADHD is a common childhood disease more research is needed to investigate the epidemiological aspects of this disease specially in Egypt where more research is essential to investigate the prevalence of such a disease in both community and hospital settings.

Objective: To study the different aspects of the epidemiology of Attention- deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the clinic setting and compares that to community based sample.

Methodology: Design: cross sectional study.

Over the period of six months from the start of June till the end of December 2012 patients between (4- 12) years were recruited from the outpatient clinic of the institute of post graduate childhood studies.

Children were diagnosed with ADHD according to American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edition.

All patients were subjected to: Full psychiatric history and mental status examination according to the psychiatric sheet of the institute of post graduate childhood studies, full medical history, complete clinical examination, including Intelligence quotient measures using Stanford Binet Fourth Edition.

Results: The prevalence of ADHD in hospital setting was 20% (39 out of 199 children) , In the diagnosed cases 67% were males and 33% were females, with a males to females ratio 2: 1.

The Mean age of the diagnosed case in years was 6.97 years, The Mean IQ of the diagnosed cases was 98, The most common subtype was the predominant hyperactive- impulsive subtype with 39% followed by the combined subtype with 33% then the predominant inattentive subtype with 28%.

Conclusion: Pooled prevalence of ADHD in a community based sample was 6.5% and up to 20% in clinic based sample.

This can help us to estimate the magnitude of the problem leading to proper design of a preventive and therapeutic intervention programs.