Children Born in August are More Likely to be Diagnosed with ADHD

A study in Taiwan shows that children who were born in August are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. However, children who were born in September had the lowest risk.

The research found that males born in August had a 4.5 percent risk of being diagnosed with the condition, which is higher than 2.8 percent for the males who were born later that month. The figure spiked from 0.7-1.2 percent for females, Mid-Day Daily reported.

But there is an explanation to the phenomenon. Scientists believe that many teachers are more likely to compared kids that are a year younger, hence more immature to more mature peers. That made the younger ones often diagnosed with ADHD by default.

Many of the ADHD cases may be false alarm, resulting to healthy kids being forced to take ADHD medication, researchers said. Most of the condition's symptoms are constant fidgeting, impulsiveness and short attention span, which are also signs of an emotionally immature child, team suggests.

Dr. Mu-Hong Chen, the study's lead author and a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan, gathered information of 380,000 schoolchildren in ages 4 to 17 from a health insurance database. They sorted out the children who were diagnosed with the condition by birth month and examined those who were taking medication to treat the condition over a period of 14 years, as reported by Huffington Post.

The cutoff birth date for entering school in Taiwan, which is August 31, made children on the same grade may be almost a year apart in age. The students with birth dates just before the school cutoff date are way younger and less mature compared to those who are born in other months, Chen explained.

Meanwhile, there is a previous study on ADHD in the United States and Canada that suggests age within the grade level has an impact for a child being diagnosed with and receiving medication for ADHD. This evidence supports Chen's study.