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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among School Children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Received: 2 February 2015     Accepted: 11 February 2015     Published: 28 February 2015
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Abstract

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood and one of the most prevalent chronic health conditions affecting school-aged children. With varying prevalence rates around the world, this study seeks to determine the prevalence of ADHD in primary school children in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria. It was a school – based descriptive cross sectional study using the Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Teacher Rating Scale. A two – staged stratified sampling technique was used to recruit pupils aged 4 – 18 years from four selected primary schools. A total of 884 pupils were studied, consisting of 452 (51.1%) males and 432 (48.9%) females. Seven (0.8%) had ADHD, out of which 6 (85.7%) had predominantly inattentive, 2 (28.6%) had predominantly hyperactive-impulsive and 1 (14.3%) had the combined subtype. Four (0.9%) out of 432 females compared to 3 (0.7%) out of 452 males had ADHD (p = 0.475). Six (1.2%) out of the 483 pupils equal to or above 10 years of age had ADHD compared to 1 (0.2%) out of the 401 pupils less than 10 years of age (p = 0.098). Oppositional & Conduct disorders and Anxiety / Depression were found to be more prevalent in children with ADHD (42.9% vs. 16.3% and 28.6% vs. 10.5% respectively). The study showed that ADHD does occur in children in Southern Nigeria and is associated with other psychiatric co-morbidities as in other parts of the world.

Published in American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (Volume 3, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajpn.20150302.12
Page(s) 23-29
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Inattention, Impulsive, School Children, Nigeria

References
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[4] Polanczyk G, de Lima MS, Horta BL, Biederman J, Rohde LA. The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: a systematic review and metaregression analysis. Am J Psychiatry. 2007; 164(6):942-948.
[5] Polanczyk GV, Willcutt EG, Salum GA, Kieling C, Rohde LA. ADHD prevalence estimates across three decades: an updated systematic review and meta-regression analysis. Int. J. Epidemiol. (2014) 43 (2): 434-442.
[6] Willcutt EG. The Prevalence of DSM-IV Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Meta-Analytic Review. Neurotherapeutics. Jul 2012; 9(3): 490–499.
[7] Ambuabunos E A, Ofovwe E G, Ibadin M O. Community survey of attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder among primary school pupils in Benin City, Nigeria. Ann Afr Med 2011; 10: 91-6.
[8] Adewuya AO, Famuyiwa OO. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among Nigerian primary school children: prevalence and co-morbid conditions. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2007 Feb; 16(1): 10-5.
[9] Moina BS, Pelham WE, Gnagy EM, Thompson AL, Marshal MP. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder risk for heavy drinking and alcohol use disorder is age specific. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2007; 31(4): 643-54.
[10] Wolraich ML, Feurer ID, Hannah JN, Pinnock TY, Baumgaertel A. 1998. Obtaining systematic teacher reports of disruptive behavior disorders utilizing DSM-IV. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 26(2):141–152.
[11] Wolraich ML1, Bard DE, Neas B, Doffing M, Beck L. The psychometric properties of the Vanderbilt attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnostic teacher rating scale in a community population. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2013 Feb; 34(2): 83-93.
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[17] Bakare MO. Attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms and disorder (ADHD) among African children: a review of epidemiology and co-morbidities. Afr J Psychiatry. 2012; 15:358-361.
[18] Brown RT, Freeman WS, Perrin JM, et al. Prevalence and assessment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in primary care settings. Pediatrics 2001; 107: E43.
[19] Graetz BW, Sawyer MG, Baghurst P. Gender differences among children with DSM-IV ADHD in Australia. J Amer Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2005; 44: 159-168.
[20] Souza I, Pinheiro MA, Denardin D, Mattos P, Rohde LA. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and comorbidity in Brazil Comparisons between two referred samples. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2004; 13:243–248.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Edward Achinike Daniel Alikor, Angela Ine Frank-Briggs, Boma Alali Ngozi Okoh. (2015). Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among School Children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 3(2), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20150302.12

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    ACS Style

    Edward Achinike Daniel Alikor; Angela Ine Frank-Briggs; Boma Alali Ngozi Okoh. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among School Children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Am. J. Psychiatry Neurosci. 2015, 3(2), 23-29. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20150302.12

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    AMA Style

    Edward Achinike Daniel Alikor, Angela Ine Frank-Briggs, Boma Alali Ngozi Okoh. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among School Children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Am J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2015;3(2):23-29. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20150302.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajpn.20150302.12,
      author = {Edward Achinike Daniel Alikor and Angela Ine Frank-Briggs and Boma Alali Ngozi Okoh},
      title = {Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among School Children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria},
      journal = {American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience},
      volume = {3},
      number = {2},
      pages = {23-29},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajpn.20150302.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20150302.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajpn.20150302.12},
      abstract = {Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood and one of the most prevalent chronic health conditions affecting school-aged children. With varying prevalence rates around the world, this study seeks to determine the prevalence of ADHD in primary school children in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria. It was a school – based descriptive cross sectional study using the Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Teacher Rating Scale. A two – staged stratified sampling technique was used to recruit pupils aged 4 – 18 years from four selected primary schools. A total of 884 pupils were studied, consisting of 452 (51.1%) males and 432 (48.9%) females. Seven (0.8%) had ADHD, out of which 6 (85.7%) had predominantly inattentive, 2 (28.6%) had predominantly hyperactive-impulsive and 1 (14.3%) had the combined subtype. Four (0.9%) out of 432 females compared to 3 (0.7%) out of 452 males had ADHD (p = 0.475). Six (1.2%) out of the 483 pupils equal to or above 10 years of age had ADHD compared to 1 (0.2%) out of the 401 pupils less than 10 years of age (p = 0.098). Oppositional & Conduct disorders and Anxiety / Depression were found to be more prevalent in children with ADHD (42.9% vs. 16.3% and 28.6% vs. 10.5% respectively). The study showed that ADHD does occur in children in Southern Nigeria and is associated with other psychiatric co-morbidities as in other parts of the world.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    T1  - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among School Children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
    AU  - Edward Achinike Daniel Alikor
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    AB  - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood and one of the most prevalent chronic health conditions affecting school-aged children. With varying prevalence rates around the world, this study seeks to determine the prevalence of ADHD in primary school children in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria. It was a school – based descriptive cross sectional study using the Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Teacher Rating Scale. A two – staged stratified sampling technique was used to recruit pupils aged 4 – 18 years from four selected primary schools. A total of 884 pupils were studied, consisting of 452 (51.1%) males and 432 (48.9%) females. Seven (0.8%) had ADHD, out of which 6 (85.7%) had predominantly inattentive, 2 (28.6%) had predominantly hyperactive-impulsive and 1 (14.3%) had the combined subtype. Four (0.9%) out of 432 females compared to 3 (0.7%) out of 452 males had ADHD (p = 0.475). Six (1.2%) out of the 483 pupils equal to or above 10 years of age had ADHD compared to 1 (0.2%) out of the 401 pupils less than 10 years of age (p = 0.098). Oppositional & Conduct disorders and Anxiety / Depression were found to be more prevalent in children with ADHD (42.9% vs. 16.3% and 28.6% vs. 10.5% respectively). The study showed that ADHD does occur in children in Southern Nigeria and is associated with other psychiatric co-morbidities as in other parts of the world.
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Author Information
  • Department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

  • Department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

  • Department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

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