Past Issues

Objectives：This study was aimed at assessing the real differences in uses and expenses of medical care services between two groups of children with and without ADHD. Methods：Children aged between 6 and 15 years were chosen from 2003 to 2006 Inpatient and Outpatient Claim Database of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance. Uses of medical care services and medical expenses were compared between children with and without ADHD. Medical expenses of the ADHD group were further divided into three use categories for (1) direct treatment of ADHD, (2) the treatment of ADHD and any other comorbidities, and (3) diseases not related to ADHD. The medical expenses were also compared between the third category of the ADHD group and the control group to assess their differences. Results：The prevalence of ADHD in our study was 0.55%. Average age of the ADHD group was nine years and 81.23% were males. Over 40% of all ADHD children were comorbid with other psychiatric diseases/disorders. The ADHD group showed signifi cantly higher use and expense in all medical services. ADHD had signifi cantly positive impact on every expense in the third category. Conclusion：Children with ADHD used more medical resources and all the expenses were mostly spent on non-ADHD-related treatments. We suggest that children with ADHD need more medical supports for other health problems in addition to their own ADHD conditions, and that other ADHD comorbidities certainly have important impacts on the uses of the medical services.