title: Gender ratios of administrative prevalence and incidence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the lifespan: A nationwide population-based study in Taiwan.
abstract: To verify the hypothesis that there is different gender ratio of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among adults compared to children and adolescents in the clinical setting among Asian population. The nationwide population-based database containing data on enrollees in the National Health Insurance program in Taiwan during 2000-2007 was used in this study, and we investigated the lifetime gender ratios of administrative prevalence and incidence in healthcare-seeking ADHD patients (n=228,029). The male-to-female ratios of diagnosed incidence and prevalence of child/adolescent ADHD (age <20 years) ranged from 3.39 to 4.07 and 3.87-4.31, respectively. The male-to-female ratios of diagnosed incidence and prevalence of ADHD in the adult group (age 20-65 years) ranged from 0.24 to 0.76 and 0.35-0.98, respectively. In conclusion, there was substantially increased female-to-male ratio in adults ADHD compared to children and adolescents in the clinical setting. Further researches on the management and mechanism are needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan; Department of Social Work, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Charles Lung-Cheng
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Healthcare Administration and Medical Informatics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shih-Feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Research, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan; Department of Pharmacy, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan. Electronic address: ho.c.hank@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Chung-Han
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Ho
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ADHD; Female; Gender; Incidence; Prevalence