ADHD early on might mean poorer health later in life

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-01-22 03:00

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UK researchers say having more ADHD traits in your childhood is linked to a greater number of physical health problems by the time you hit middle-aged years. To work this out, the team used data from close to 11,000 people over 46 years, and say those people with more childhood ADHD traits also had a higher likelihood to end up with physical health problems, including having two or more issues simultaneously, as well as a higher risk of having physical health-related disabilities by the time they turned 46 years old. However, the researchers do add that, in part, these associations were somewhat explained by smoking, psychological distress, and a person's BMI.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University College London, UK; University of Liverpool, UK

Funder: This study was supported by grant MRF-RGM-MH-24-114 from the Medical Research Foundation. The Centre for Longitudinal Studies Resource Centre is funded by grant ES/W013142/1 from the UK Economic and Social Research Council.

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