More than 13% of boys in America have ADHD

This article claims that over 13% of American boys have ADHD.

A total of 9.5% of children aged 4-17 in the US have at some point been diagnosed with ADHD, according to statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control. While prevalence statistics often rely on the administration of mental health screening tests, the latest statistics reflect actual diagnoses given to the children by physicians or mental health care providers. The CDC also identified significant trends based on gender and income levels.

The latest statistics came from the National Health Interview Survey of the National Center for Health Statistics. Between 2011-13, information was collected for 29,968 children aged 4–17. Respondents were asked, “Has a doctor or health professional ever told you that [sample child] had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD)?”

There were differences based on age, gender and income.

"For those aged 4–5, prevalence was 2.7%, 9.5% for those aged 6–11, and 11.8% for those aged 12–17," stated a CDC data brief. "13.3% of boys and 5.6% of girls aged 4–17 had ever been diagnosed with ADHD."

The ADHD rates were highest among children with public insurance at 11.7%, and lowest among uninsured children at 5.7%. Among children with private insurance, the rate was 8.6%.

Of families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty threshold, 10.4% of children had been diagnosed with ADHD, compared with 8.8% of children in families with incomes at or above 200% of the poverty threshold.

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Better night's sleep can be due to income and education

A study from Canada shows a link between sleep quality, higher income, and higher education levels.

How do Canada's wealthy sleep at night? Better than most, it seems.

A new national survey finds 76 per cent of households whose incomes top $100,000 get six to eight hours of shut-eye every night - the highest proportion of any income group - while Canadians in one of the lowest-earning groups ($15,000 to $24,999) are likeliest to average fewer than six hours.

Statistics Canada's latest National Household Survey results pegged the median family income in 2010 at $76,000, while the median individual income was $29,878. Education also appears to buy more time in bed, with higher levels of schooling almost universally correlating with more hours of rest. When comparing Canadians with high school, college/technical, and university educations, the latter of the three groups was least likely to get fewer than six hours of sleep a night, and most likely to report enjoying six to eight hours, or more than eight hours.

Sophie Lamarche, an executive coach, said the results reflect the fact that higher-educated, higherearning workers tend to have more vacation days and benefits - which are linked to wellness - as well as the ability to delegate as necessary in order to maintain balance.

"It's a myth that the more you work, the more you're productive," said Lamarche, president of BarSo Group International in Montreal. But she also noted the importance of individuals finding their own rhythms.

"Just because the standard we all hear is eight hours, doesn't mean that's what will work for you; maybe it's nine, maybe it's seven."

Respondents in Manitoba/Saskatchewan and B.C. were likeliest to report six to eight hours a night (74 and 73 per cent, respectively), while the provinces that returned the highest reports of "good" or "excellent" sleep were actually Quebec (67 per cent) and Ontario (62 per cent).

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Autism's burden is reflected in family incomes, study says

Raising children brings financial challenge for many families, but especially for parents of children with autism. And the magnitude of that burden is a lot bigger than you may think.

A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that overall earnings in families with children with autism are 28% ($17,763) less compared to families whose children do not have health limitations, and 21% ($10,416) less compared to families with children with other health limitations.

The dichotomy is striking in the mothers' income: Mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder tend to earn 35% less than mothers who have children with different health limitations - in fact, $7189 less - on average. Compared to mothers of children who do not have health limitations, those with autistic children earn 56% less, which translates to an average difference of $14,755. There was no average difference in fathers' incomes, however.

Families in which a child has an autism spectrum disorder are 9% less likely to have both parents working than other families.

About 1 in 110 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder.Autism is a developmental condition characterized by difficulties in social interaction, language and behavior; symptoms usually start before age 3. There is no cure for autism, and behavioral interventions are quite costly. But experts say earlier treatment is better.

A person with autism costs an average of $3.2 million to society over his or her lifetime, according to a 2007 study. Adult care and lost productivity are the biggest sources of that amount.

Researchers wanted to look at the cost from a different angle: The effect on family earnings.

Using a large nationally representative survey, researchers identified 261 children with autism spectrum disorders. They also included 2,921 children with another health limitation and 64,349 children without a health limitation.

The income discrepancy among families with a child with autism is likely due to mothers leaving the workforce and taking lower-paying jobs, said study co-author David Mandell.

These mothers aren't just staying at home to take care of their children with autism, says Mandell, associate director of the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania. They're on the phone arguing with their insurance company about getting services, going to multiple meetings about school, and shuttling kids from provider after provider.

"It’s not that caring for a child with autism is more difficult per se than caring for a child with cerebral palsy, for example, or intellectual disability," said Mandell, associate director of the Center for Autism Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. "But the service system for kids with autism is not as well defined. There’s not as much appropriate treatment available for these kids."

Mandell and colleagues thought that fathers' income might be higher in families with children with autism, to compensate for the mothers' loss of income. But they found no average difference compared to other families in the study.

"There’s a big cost of not providing care to children with autism. That cost is going to manifest in different ways," Mandell said. "One of the things that’s going to happen is: It’s going to create an economic hit for society as a whole in another domain."

The study results are no surprise to Peter Bell, executive vice president for Programs and Services at Autism Speaks. Bell was not involved in the study.

Bell's 19-year-old son has autism. When the family got his diagnosis in 1996, Bell and his wife created a home program for their son with six to seven therapists coming in every day, providing one-on-one behavioral treatment. "Literally it was like running a small business ourselves," he said.

Many children with autism additionally have to travel to speech and occupational therapy sessions.

"It does require at least one person to almost be dedicating their full time effort, which is again, what is coming out of this study," Bell said.

Sometimes parents of children with autism can return to the workforce, depending on the needs of the child. Some go to work for Autism Speaks, Bell said. In other cases it's not possible. Bell's wife left the workforce in order to help her son with autism, and has never returned.

There's also the issue of insurance. As the study notes, "private health care insurance companies frequently severely limit or do not cover autism-specific therapies." There are some 26 states that have mandates requiring coverage for autism treatment, but only about half the people in those states are in insurance plans subject to the mandates, Mandell said.

But there is a provision in the federal health care reform legislation, taking effect in 2014, that will require state insurance exchanges to include behavioral health treatments as one of the essential benefits.

Autism speaks offers this 100-day toolkit for families of a child with newly diagnosed autism.

There are some limitations to the Pediatrics study. First off, the children with autism represented a small fraction of the total considered. Also, it is an observational study, and it does not show that autism causes this income discrepancy.

But to Bell, it is a confirmation of what he has been seeing in the community for more than a decade.

"This should be another reminder to the federal government and state government that autism is a significant public health challenge," Bell said of the study. "It is an emergency."

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