United States: ADHD impacts the weight of a child in ways that will dictate the overall health of the child in the future, a new study shows.
Impact on Child Weight and Health
Prenatal mothers of children with ADHD have found that they have low birth weight, and this tends to cause developmental delays and health complications, as discovered by researchers in Britain, as reported by HealthDay.
But these children also are more likely to gain obesity after age 5, a weight change that in turn puts additional stress on their health if they survive to adulthood, the researchers pointed out.
“Children with increased ADHD symptoms are typically lighter at birth than their peers but are later more likely to have obesity,” researcher Claire Reed of the University of Southampton said in a news release. “Research into the ‘when and why’ regarding this turning point is scarce.”
Key Findings from the Study
In the context of the present research, information referring to over 7,900 children born between 2000 and 2002 was compared.
Out of those children, the team matched them with 442 kids with ADHD and 5,400 children without an ADHD diagnosis or symptoms of the disorder.
Students diagnosed with ADHD had been weighed less at birth on average, another search showed.
But those differences in weight disappeared immediately, and by nine months and at three years, the two groups reduced their weights to almost the same level.
Age and Gender Differences in Obesity Risk
Further, across age 5 years, the children with ADHD were notably more likely to develop obesity if those receiving stimulants for their complaint were eliminated, findings indicate.
Specifically, the study says the risk was highest at age 7 for girls and at age 11 for boys.
Researchers also found that the greater the number of ADHD symptoms in a child, the greater they could expect their BMI at ages 11 and 14 to be.
The evidence points to possibly a time between 3 and 5 years of age that ADHD symptoms are linked to obesity.
The Role of Impulsivity in Food Choices
The exact reasons for this are still unknown, but they seem to be linked with the kind of food children select, the researchers pointed out, as reported by HealthDay.
“Those with higher levels of impulsivity may be less likely to make healthier choices,” they wrote.
