Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 157, Issue 4, October 2010, Pages 635-640.e1
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Article
A Naturalistic 10-Year Prospective Study of Height and Weight in Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Grown Up: Sex and Treatment Effects

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.04.025Get rights and content

Objective

To assess the effect of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its treatment on growth outcomes in children followed into adulthood.

Study design

Two identically designed, longitudinal, case-control studies of males and females with and without ADHD were combined; 124 and 137 control and subjects with ADHD, respectively, provided growth information at the 10- to 11-year follow-up. We used linear growth curve models to estimate the effect of time on change in height and whether this effect differed by sex and ADHD status. We also examined the effect of stimulant treatment on growth outcomes.

Results

We found no evidence that ADHD was associated with trajectories of height over time or differences at follow-up in any growth outcomes. Similarly, we found no evidence that stimulant treatment was associated with differences in growth. However, among subjects with ADHD, major depression was associated with significantly larger weight in females and smaller height in males.

Conclusions

Our results do not support an association between deficits in growth outcomes and either ADHD or psychostimulant treatment for ADHD. These findings extend the literature on this topic into young adulthood and should assist clinicians and parents in formulating treatment plans for children with ADHD.

Section snippets

Methods

Subjects were derived from two identically designed, longitudinal, case-control studies. The first study ascertained 140 male cases (ADHD) and 120 control subjects (non-ADHD) ages 6 to 17 years. Subjects were assessed at baseline and at 4- and 10-year follow-up. The second study ascertained 140 females with ADHD and 122 control subjects ages 6 to 17 years. Subjects were assessed at baseline and at 5- and 10- to 11 year follow-up times. We used data from both studies, across all waves of

Results

Of the 140 with ADHD and 120 control boys recruited at baseline, 112 (80%) and 105 (88%), respectively, were successfully reassessed at the 10-year follow-up (χ2(1) = 2.6, P = .11). Previously, we reported no differences between boys followed up and not followed up on a range of demographic characteristics, except social class.7 There was no significant difference between the ADHD and control groups in the proportion providing growth data (n = 78 (70%) and n = 68 (65%), respectively; χ2(1) =

Discussion

Our results showing no differences in trajectories of growth outcomes between subjects with and without ADHD are consistent with our baseline assessment of our female sample with and without ADHD.3 These findings are also congruent with the mean baseline height z score from studies of stimulant-naïve children with ADHD (z = 0.08, 95% CI = -0.01 to 0.17) .1

However, our results are not consistent with evidence showing an increased risk for overweight in children with ADHD15 nor with the

References (19)

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Conflict of interest and funding support information is available at www.jpeds.com (Appendix).

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