Persistence of Parent-Reported ADHD Symptoms From Childhood Through Adolescence in a Community Sample

Holbrook, Joseph R.
Cuffe, Steven P.
Cai, Bo
Visser, Susanna N.
Forthofer, Melinda S.
Bottai, Matteo
Ortaglia, Andrew
McKeown, Robert E.

¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
²University of Florida College of Medicine–Jacksonville, FL, USA
³University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
⁴Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Joseph R. Holbrook, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road MS E-88, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Email: [email protected]

Journal of Attention Disorders 20(1):p 11-20, January 2016. | DOI: 10.1177/1087054714539997

Objective: To examine ADHD symptom persistence and factors associated with elevated symptom counts in a diverse, longitudinal community-based sample. Method: Parents reported demographics and completed a diagnostic interview repeatedly over a 6-year period. At Time 1, 481 interviews were completed about children (5-13 years); all participants were invited to four annual follow-up interviews, and 379 (79%) completed at least one. Inattentive (IA) and hyperactive-impulsive (HI) symptom counts were modeled with logistic quantile regression, while accounting for study design complexities. Results: The prevalence of seven IA symptoms remained stable from early childhood through late adolescence. The prevalence of eight HI symptoms decreased by more than half over time. After demographic adjustment, the upper quartile of HI symptom counts decreased with age (p < .01). High HI symptom counts persisted more among those with high IA symptom counts (p = .05). Conclusion: This study further characterizes and provides insights into ADHD symptom trajectory through adolescence.