4.1 MEDICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC COMORBIDITIES IN KOREAN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the medical and psychiatric comorbidities of Korean children and adolescents with ADHD. Methods: This study used the Korean National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service -- National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS) data in 2011. We used information on 2,140 children and adolescents (age 10.9- 3.1 years, 1,710 boys) who had ADHD(ICD-10: F90) and 219,410 children and adolescents who did not have ADHD(age 12.4-3.7 years, 113,704 boys).We compared demographic information with medical and psychiatric comorbidities of the two groups. We weighted logistic regression for calculating odds ratio between two groups. Results: Most medical comorbidities were frequent in subjects with ADHD. Disease of nervous systems (OR = 2.59, 95% CI 2.52-2.66) was almost three times more frequent than in non-ADHD subjects, followed by endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (OR =2.09, 95% CI 2.04-2.15); congenital malformations, deformations, and chromosomal abnormalities (OR = 2.00, 95% CI 1.90-2.11); disease of circulatory systems (OR =1.79, 95% CI 1.71-1.87); and disease of the blood and blood-forming organ and certain disorders involving the immune mechanism (OR =1.78, 95% CI 1.70-1.86). Compared with non-ADHD subjects, oppositional defiant and conduct disorders were most prevalent in subjects with ADHD (OR = 81.88, 95% CI 79.00- 84.86). Specific learning disorder (OR =75.61, 95% CI 69.69-82.04), depressive disorder (OR =55.76, 95% CI 54.44-57.11), tic disorder (OR =51.20, 95% CI 49.75-52.68), and bipolar disorder (OR =50.10, 95% CI 47.56-52.76) followed. Conclusions: This study suggests that children and adolescents with ADHD have more medical and psychiatric comorbidities than those without ADHD using nationwide population-based data in Korea.