Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study
Background: Previous studies from North America and Iceland have shown that the youngest children within a grade are up to twice as likely to be diagnosed and treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with their older classmates. We aimed to investigate whether younger age...
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Online Access: | http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13581096 https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12243 |
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ftharvardudash:oai:dash.harvard.edu:1/13581096 2023-05-15T16:52:09+02:00 Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study Pottegård, Anton Hallas, Jesper Díaz, Hernández Zoëga, Helga 2014 application/pdf http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13581096 https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12243 en_US eng John Wiley & Sons Ltd doi:10.1111/jcpp.12243 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4277337/pdf/ Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines Pottegård, Anton, Jesper Hallas, Hernández Díaz, and Helga Zoëga. 2014. “Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines 55 (11): 1244-1250. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12243. 0021-9630 http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13581096 Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder central stimulants children age factors drug utilization evaluation Journal Article 2014 ftharvardudash https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12243 2022-04-05T06:47:02Z Background: Previous studies from North America and Iceland have shown that the youngest children within a grade are up to twice as likely to be diagnosed and treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with their older classmates. We aimed to investigate whether younger age in class is associated with an increased probability of being prescribed medication for ADHD among school-aged children in Denmark. Methods: We followed all Danish children between 2000 and 2012 from 1st through 6th grade (7–12 years). Among children who started school on their age-assigned grade level, we estimated the prevalence proportion ratio (PPR) of receiving ADHD medication between the youngest children in class (born in October–December) and the oldest in class (born in January–March), specified by grade level, calendar year and gender. As a sensitivity analysis, we added children not on their age-assigned grade level to the main calculations. Results: We identified 932,032 eligible children for the main analysis, of whom 17.3% were among the youngest and 26.5% among the oldest in class. In total, 1.2% eligible children filled at least one prescription for ADHD medication in 2000–2012. The average PPR over the study period was 1.08 (95% CI, 1.04–1.12) and remained stable across subgroups and sensitivity analyses. Overall, 40% of children born October–December had entered school a year after their age-assigned grade level. Conclusions: Contrary to previous study results, we observed almost no relative age effect on medication use for ADHD among children in Denmark. We postulate that this may be due to the high proportion of relatively young children held back by 1 year in the Danish school system and/or a generally low prevalence of ADHD medication use in the country. Version of Record Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Harvard University: DASH - Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 55 11 1244 1250 |
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Open Polar |
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Harvard University: DASH - Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard |
op_collection_id |
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language |
English |
topic |
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder central stimulants children age factors drug utilization evaluation |
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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder central stimulants children age factors drug utilization evaluation Pottegård, Anton Hallas, Jesper Díaz, Hernández Zoëga, Helga Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study |
topic_facet |
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder central stimulants children age factors drug utilization evaluation |
description |
Background: Previous studies from North America and Iceland have shown that the youngest children within a grade are up to twice as likely to be diagnosed and treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with their older classmates. We aimed to investigate whether younger age in class is associated with an increased probability of being prescribed medication for ADHD among school-aged children in Denmark. Methods: We followed all Danish children between 2000 and 2012 from 1st through 6th grade (7–12 years). Among children who started school on their age-assigned grade level, we estimated the prevalence proportion ratio (PPR) of receiving ADHD medication between the youngest children in class (born in October–December) and the oldest in class (born in January–March), specified by grade level, calendar year and gender. As a sensitivity analysis, we added children not on their age-assigned grade level to the main calculations. Results: We identified 932,032 eligible children for the main analysis, of whom 17.3% were among the youngest and 26.5% among the oldest in class. In total, 1.2% eligible children filled at least one prescription for ADHD medication in 2000–2012. The average PPR over the study period was 1.08 (95% CI, 1.04–1.12) and remained stable across subgroups and sensitivity analyses. Overall, 40% of children born October–December had entered school a year after their age-assigned grade level. Conclusions: Contrary to previous study results, we observed almost no relative age effect on medication use for ADHD among children in Denmark. We postulate that this may be due to the high proportion of relatively young children held back by 1 year in the Danish school system and/or a generally low prevalence of ADHD medication use in the country. Version of Record |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pottegård, Anton Hallas, Jesper Díaz, Hernández Zoëga, Helga |
author_facet |
Pottegård, Anton Hallas, Jesper Díaz, Hernández Zoëga, Helga |
author_sort |
Pottegård, Anton |
title |
Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study |
title_short |
Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study |
title_full |
Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study |
title_fullStr |
Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study |
title_sort |
children's relative age in class and use of medication for adhd: a danish nationwide study |
publisher |
John Wiley & Sons Ltd |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13581096 https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12243 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
doi:10.1111/jcpp.12243 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4277337/pdf/ Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines Pottegård, Anton, Jesper Hallas, Hernández Díaz, and Helga Zoëga. 2014. “Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines 55 (11): 1244-1250. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12243. 0021-9630 http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13581096 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12243 |
container_title |
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry |
container_volume |
55 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
1244 |
op_container_end_page |
1250 |
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1766042299955937280 |