Motor activity at age one year does not predict ADHD at seven years

Paul Johnson, Boolang Ahamat, Alex McConnachie, Christine Puckering, Helen Marwick, Daniel Furnival, Robbie Marwick, Christopher Gillberg, Jon Heron, Philip Wilson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Early identification of psychopathology is a prerequisite for early intervention in treatable disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that can persist and cause significant morbidity. We have examined the predictive utility of motor activity in infancy towards diagnosis of ADHD in later childhood.
We conducted a nested case-control study using videos of infants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a longitudinal community-based cohort. Ten percent of children from the cohort took part in a video-recorded interaction at one year. The 60 videos of children who received any Development and Well Being Assessment (DAWBA) psychiatric diagnosis at age 91 months (including 16 with ADHD), together with two randomly selected sex-matched controls per case were selected for motion data analysis. Body movements were measured at age 1 year and three motor activity-derived variables were generated using factor analysis. Associations between these motor activity factors later ADHD diagnoses were sought. No significant association was found between motor activity at age 1 year and diagnosis of ADHD at age 7 years in the full sample. A positive association between motor activity and inattentive ADHD was found in males. In our sample, motor activity at age one year did not predict ADHD at age seven years. The positive association with inattentive ADHD in males requires further investigation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9-18
Number of pages10
JournalInternational Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
Volume23
Issue number1
Early online date4 Feb 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2014

Keywords

  • ADHD
  • motor development
  • infant mental health

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