Special Education

National Survey Puts ADHD Incidence Near 7 Percent

By Darcia Harris Bowman — May 29, 2002 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Approximately 1.6 million elementary school children in the United States have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to the first nationwide survey on the condition.

Read “Attention Deficit Disorder and Learning Disability,” from the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)

Drawing on responses from 78,041 households canvassed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1997 and 1998, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found that parents of nearly 7 percent of children ages 6 to 11 reported having been told by health-care providers that those children had ADHD.

That finding, released last week, tracks with a smaller analysis released in March by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., that estimated a minimum of 7.5 percent of school-age children have the disorder. (“Study: Minimum ADHD Incidence Is 7.5 Percent,” March 27, 2002.)

The CDC study also looked at the incidence of learning disorders among children in the elementary-age group and found that 7.7 percent, or about 1.8 million, had at least one learning disability.

An estimated 2.6 million U.S. children have either ADHD or a learning disability, or both. Overall, 3.3 percent of all American 6- to 11-year-olds have ADHD, 4.2 percent have learning disabilities, and 3.5 percent have both, the study said.

Dr. David Fleming, the acting director of the CDC, said in a statement that the survey provides a valuable snapshot of ADHD. But he cautioned that “much more needs to be learned about ADHD and about the spectrum of impairments associated with ADHD.”

Gender Gap

According to the survey, the percentage of boys diagnosed with the behavioral disorder was almost three times greater than that of girls, while learning disorders were equally common in both genders. White children are more likely than Hispanic or black children to be diagnosed with ADHD.

The results of the study suggest that having access to health care may strongly influence ADHD diagnosis. Children whose families had private insurance or Medicaid were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than those without some form of medical insurance.

The authors found that among children without a diagnosis of either ADHD or a learning disorder, only 3 percent had seen a mental-health professional during the past 12 months.

Among children diagnosed with either condition, the percent who had received mental-health care in the past year was 17 percent for those with learning disorders, 34 percent for those with just ADHD, and 51 percent for those with both.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the May 29, 2002 edition of Education Week as National Survey Puts ADHD Incidence Near 7 Percent

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Special Education Disability or 'Superpower'? The Push to Change Mindsets About Students With Learning Differences
Advocates are calling for a paradigm shift in how adults perceive, and educate, students with learning differences.
5 min read
Conceptual artwork, imagination dream and hope concept, Superhero boy
Jorm Sangsorn/iStock/Getty
Special Education What We Know About Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS), in Charts
More districts and schools are using a tiered system of supports for students, with a focus on social-emotional learning, a survey found.
5 min read
Vector illustration of diverse children, students climbing up on a top of a stack of staggered books.
iStock/Getty
Special Education New AI-Powered Sensors Could Tell Teachers What’s Really Going on With Students
Researchers are testing wearable sensors that track movement and body language of kids with autism and other conditions.
5 min read
Boy raises his hand to answer a question in a classroom; he is sitting on the floor with other kids and the teacher is sitting in front of the class.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
Special Education Explainer MTSS: What Is a Multi-Tiered System of Supports?
MTSS, or multi-tiered system of supports, is a widely used framework meant to offer students personalized education that meets their needs.
7 min read
Illustration of people climbing stacks of books. There are 3 stacks of books at different heights with people helping people climb up.
iStock/Getty