The Temporal Hyper-Morbidity of Asthma and Attention Deficit Disorder: Implications for Interpretation Based on Comparison of Prospective and Cross-Sectional Population Samples

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that a significant temporal relationship exists between asthma and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: The population dataset consisted of 95,846,511 physician diagnoses for 768,460 (46% male) individuals spanning 1993–2010. Four groups were labeled as having neither Asthma nor ADHD, Asthma only, ADHD only, or both Asthma and ADHD and formed the basis of calculating the odds ratios for each sex describing the association of Asthma and ADHD by age, and, in addition, a prospective sample age (<5 years) between 1993 and 1996 was utilized to evaluate the temporal association between Asthma and ADHD. RESULTS: There was a significant relationship between ADHD and Asthma within the age strata of the sample, one from the cohort and two from the whole sample. When both ADHD and Asthma were diagnosed in the same patients, the age was younger in both cross-sectional and prospective cohort samples. ADHD arose significantly more often after Asthma in the cross-sectional samples stratified on age and in the prospective cohort sample. CONCLUSION: The results are consistent with previous literature where ADHD has been linked to allergic diseases, such as asthma.