Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in ‎elementary school students

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent ‎psychiadric disorders starting from Childhood and is considered as an important mental health ‎problem of a society. Behavioral disorders including ADHD may have distractive effects on peoples ‎social, educational, personality, and behavioral relationship in their childhood and adulthood. ‎Therefore, we decided to conduct the present research for ADHD in elementary school students of ‎Khoramabad year 2004.‎ This research was a cross-sectional study. Its statistical community ‎includes all the students studing in grades one to five at elementary school in Khorramabad ‎‎(N=945).‎ Some 16 state and private schools (8 girls and 8 boys schools) were selected in a cluster and multi-‎stage method. The standardized questionnaire Child symptom inventories – 4 (CSI4) has been used ‎to collect data, which was a means for the prevalens of children’s psychiatric disorders. Owing to ‎their scoring. The cases which showed ADHD were undergone clinical examination by psychiatrist. ‎Then, the results were analyzed using descriptive statistic and X2 test.‎ The total sample was 945 children There were 50.7% and 49.3% girls and boys ‎respectively. Some 3.17 per cent of them were reported to suffer from ADHD the most percentages ‎of which were of inattention (40%), overactivens (33.3%), and mixed type (26.6%). ADHD was ‎reported to be more prevalent in boys than girls (4.9% VS. 1.5%). The students in grade 5 showed ‎the lowest, and those in grade 2 and 3 showed the highest prevalence rate of suffering from ADHD. ‎There was also a significant relationship between children’s sex and ADHD (P<0.005). However, ‎there seemed no significant relationship between parents age, education, job, income, grade, and the ‎family psychiatric problems. Due to the high prevalence of the disorder including ADHD, and lack of enough ‎attention to their consequences in children and adolescent age group. It seems necessary to identify ‎these disorders so that they may be considered in time. Since our population is stepping to word ‎growth and development, understanding children’s problems is very worthy. Because they play an ‎important role in our society future. On the other hand, providing mental health for children and ‎teenagers half them to play better their social, mental and physical role in society.‎