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TUESDAY, July 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) — There is a modest, but statistically significant, association between higher frequency of digital media use and subsequent symptoms of attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among adolescents, according to a study published in the July 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Chaelin K. Ra, M.P.H., from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, and colleagues conducted a longitudinal cohort study involving students in 10 high schools. A total of 2,587 adolescents who did not have significant symptoms of ADHD at baseline were followed for a median of 22.6 months.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that a mean of 3.62 baseline digital media activities were used at a high-frequency rate. Overall, 54.1 percent of students reported high frequency of checking social media, the most common media activity. There was a correlation for high-frequency engagement in each additional digital media activity at baseline with a significantly increased odds of having ADHD symptoms across follow-up (odds ratio, 1.11). After covariate adjustment, this correlation persisted (odds ratio, 1.10). The mean rate of having ADHD symptoms across follow-up was 4.6 percent for the 495 students who reported no high-frequency media use at baseline versus 9.5 percent for the 114 students who reported seven high-frequency activities and 10.5 percent for the 51 students who reported 14 high-frequency activities.<\/p>\n
“More frequent use of digital media may be associated with development of ADHD symptoms; further research is needed to assess whether this association is causal,” the authors write.<\/p>\n
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