Prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - ADHD among Young Individuals - An Observational Study

Abstract

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder-ADHD is a developmental nervous behavioural disorder mostly diagnosed in childhood and rarely in adults. Characteristic clinical features in adults are mainly, hyperactivity, attention deficit and impulsiveness instability in interpersonal relations and alcohol abuse which can cause poor occupational, academic and social performance in future. As ADHD is usually undiagnosed in adults because of its poor knowledge of the symptoms. Need of study is to see the prevalence of ADHD among individuals, as ADHD youth are at high risk of a wide range of adverse psychiatric outcomes. Methodology: This observational study was performed in 307 young female & male of all the fields aged between 18-24, according to Newman’s classification. The subjects were screened for ADHD by Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) which has two parts- inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive. This questionnaire was sent through Google Form. Results: Statistical analysis was done using Microsoft Excel 10th version. According to ASR Scale among 307, 5.53% were highly likely to have inattentiveness and 6.64% were highly likely to have hyper activeness and impulsiveness. In 207 females 6.28%, 5.79% were highly likely to be inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive and in 100 males 9%,4% were highly likely to be hyperactive/impulsive, inattentive. Conclusion: Total prevalence of Adult ADHD is 11.40%. Among all the participants, prevalence of ADHD for Part-A (Inattentive) is 5.53% and Part-B (Hyperactive/Impulsive) is 6.64%. Out of total, 0.977% got mixed symptoms of ADHD. Keywords: Young individuals, ASRS, Adult ADHD, Inattentive, Hyperactive, Impulsive.