Department of Psychology, Center for Innovation in Mental Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, UK.
Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Social Research, UCL, London, UK.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2021 Jun;30(6):877-884. doi: 10.1007/s00787-020-01566-9. Epub 2020 Jun 6.
Hyperactivity is one of the three core symptoms in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Diagnosing ADHD typically involves self-report, third party report and observations. Objective activity data can make a valuable contribution to the diagnostic process. Small actigraphy studies in clinical samples have shown that children with ADHD move more than children without ADHD. However, differences in physical activity between children with and without ADHD have not been assessed in large community samples or longitudinally. This study used data from the Millennium Cohort Study to test whether symptoms of ADHD (parent-rating Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) and ADHD diagnosis at age 14 (reported by parents) could be predicted from objective activity data (measured with actigraphs) at age 7 in N = 6675 children (final N = 5251). Regressions showed that less sedentary behavior at age 7 predicted more ADHD symptoms at age 14 (β = - 0.002, CI - 0.004 to - 0.001). The result remained significant when controlled for ADHD symptoms at age 7, sex, BMI, month of birth, SES and ethnicity (β = - 0.001, CI - 0.003 to - 0.0003). ADHD diagnosis at age 14 was also significantly predicted by less sedentary behavior at age 7 (β = - 0.008). Our findings show that symptoms of ADHD can be predicted by objective activity data 5 years in advance and suggest that actigraphy could be a useful instrument aiding an ADHD diagnosis. Interestingly, the results indicate that the key difference between children with and without ADHD lies in reduced sedentary activity, i.e., times of rest.
多动是儿童注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）的三个核心症状之一。ADHD 的诊断通常涉及自我报告、第三方报告和观察。客观的活动数据可以为诊断过程做出有价值的贡献。在临床样本中进行的小型活动记录仪研究表明，ADHD 儿童比非 ADHD 儿童活动更多。然而，在大型社区样本或纵向研究中，尚未评估 ADHD 儿童和非 ADHD 儿童之间的体力活动差异。本研究使用千禧年队列研究的数据，来测试 ADHD 症状（父母评定的《长处与困难问卷》）和 14 岁时的 ADHD 诊断（由父母报告）是否可以从 7 岁时的客观活动数据（使用活动记录仪测量）中预测到，共纳入 6675 名儿童（最终纳入 5251 名）。回归分析显示，7 岁时的久坐行为越少，14 岁时的 ADHD 症状越多（β= - 0.002，CI：-0.004 至-0.001）。当控制 7 岁时的 ADHD 症状、性别、BMI、出生月份、SES 和种族时，结果仍然显著（β= - 0.001，CI：-0.003 至-0.0003）。14 岁时的 ADHD 诊断也可显著预测 7 岁时的久坐行为越少（β= - 0.008）。我们的研究结果表明，ADHD 症状可以通过 5 年前的客观活动数据预测，这表明活动记录仪可能是一种有用的辅助 ADHD 诊断的工具。有趣的是，结果表明，ADHD 儿童和非 ADHD 儿童之间的关键区别在于减少静坐活动，即休息时间。
