Recent studies show increases in TV, gaming parallel ADHD diagnoses
Diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children has skyrocketed a whopping 24 percent between Jan. 1, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2010, according to a study released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association by the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Group. The researchers examined data from 842,832 5- to 11-year old children on the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health plan with an ADHD diagnosis by race, age, sex and household income.
With 4.9 percent of the children in the study clinically diagnosed, the presence of ADHD in U.S. children has now reached alarming proportions. But why? What could possibly cause such an intense surge in mental disorder in America’s youth?
What’s interesting about this study is the change in demographic trends that the report suggests and the implications these shifts have on the causes of this alarming spike in ADHD diagnoses. According to the analysis of the research group, patients with ADHD were “more likely to be white or black, come from families earning $70,000 or more annually, and were more likely to be male than female.”
In attempts to find causation, one must look for parallel trends. In this case, it appears that the increase in video games and other multimedia technology could be a large factor in the development of ADHD in young children. In 2011, leading market research firm NPD Group reported that the number of gamers between 2 and 5 years old jumped 17 percent in 2009 alone, making toddlers the fastest growing video game population. In addition, the platform with the largest increase in use were mobile devices, which included cell phones, laptops and tablets. These personal gadgets are much more prevalent among higher earning households (due to their relatively high cost), just as ADHD sufferers are. It’s hardly a coincidence.
In fact, a study published in the August 2010 issue of Pediatrics showed that “children who spent more than two hours a day in front of a screen, either playing video games or watching TV, were 1.6 to 2.1 times more likely to have attention problems.” Additionally, Dimitri Christakis, director of the Child Health Institute at the University of Washington in Seattle, found that kids under the age of 5 who watched two hours of TV a day were 20 percent more likely than kids who watched no TV to have attention problems at school age.
As young adults, our brains are also still in a developmental phase. These studies go to show that the impact of media technology on our brains, and the brains of our nation’s youth, may be a much greater risk to our own mental health and society than previously thought.