ADHD (ADHQ)

ADHD is the name of an additional questionnaire on prevalence and co-morbidities of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among Lifelines participants. Implementation of this questionnaire in Lifelines was initiated by the University Center of Psychiatry of the UMCG, as part of the EU Horizon-2020 CoCa (co-morbid conditions of ADHD) project.

The collected ADHD data is currently under embargo. Please contact the Lifelines data managers at data@lifelines.nl for more information.

ADHQ aimed to measure the rate of ADHD within the Lifelines cohort, as well as potential co-morbidities such as autism spectrum problems, mood disorders, substance abuse, and sleeping problems. ADHQ contained separate but overlapping digital questionnaires that were tailored to three groups of Lifelines participants, plus a group of significant others:

1. Children 4-12 years old. Parents filled in the complete questionnaire. In this group, the questionnaire also included a Developmental Coordination Disorder questionnaire.
2. Adolescents 13-17 years old. Adolescents filled in their own questionnaire, except for items on ADHD and autism spectrum problems which were filled in by their parents.
3. Adults of 18+ years old filled in their own questionnaires.
4. For adult participants, items on ADHD, cognition, autism spectrum problems and aggression were (also) filled in by a significant other such as a parent, partner, or similar.

Rationale for the use of parental or other informants: self-insight is limited for neurodevelopmental problems such as ADHD or autism spectrum, and a second informant is required to rate the presence of the symptoms in order to meet the existing publication standards regarding valid diagnostic information.

• Batch 1: march - june 2017 (all age groups)
• Batch 2: jan - april 2018 (additional adults and adult informants only)
• Batch 3: jan - april 2019 (non-responders of adults and adult informants only)

Children (4-12)
~5,700 children (i.e., their parents) were invited for ADHQ.
The response rate of the parental informants was 33% (n=~1,800).

Adolescents (13-17)
~4,200 adolescents and their parents were invited for ADHQ
The response rate of the adolescents was 15% (n=~600).
The response rate of their parental informants was 19% (n=~800).

Adults (18+)
~85,000 adults and informants were invited for ADHQ
The response rate of the adult participants was 45% (n=~38,500).
The response rate of the informants was 22% (n=18,000).

The following publication was based on the ADHD Assessment:

• Vos M and Hartman CA (2022) The decreasing prevalence of ADHD across the adult lifespan confirmed. J Glob Health 12: 03024
• Cardoso Melo RD et al. (2023) Reward sensitivity across the lifespan in males and females and its associations with psychopathology. Pers Individ Differ 204, 112041
• Sarsembayeva D et al. (2023) Nonlinear associations between insomnia symptoms and circadian preferences in the general population: Symptom-specific and lifespan differences in men and women. Sleep Health (in press)

The ADHQ questionnaires included several items that were used in other Lifelines assessments as well:

• Child behavior (CBCL)
• Youth self report (YSR)
• MINI Neuropsychiatric Interview, digital self-report version
• Alcohol use, quantitative using the FFQ
• Drug use
• Anthropometry (self-reported)

In addition, the ADHQ questionnaires included the following unique items:

• ADHD Rating Scale
• Social behaviour (ASBQ/CSBQ)
• Aggression (ASR/ABCL)
• Chronotype (CSM)
• Chronotype (CCTQ)
• Reward sensitivity (SPSRQ)
• Cognitive decline (IQCODE)