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Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits Higher Among Children with ADHD, ASD

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Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or both have higher rates of injury-related emergency department visits than children without either disorder, a study in JAMA Network Open has found. However, the types of injuries varied among groups.

Dorit Shmueli, M.D., of Clalit Health Services in Tel Aviv, and colleagues examined data from the medical records of 325,412 children born between 2005 and 2009 and followed up until the end of 2021. The researchers separated the children into four groups: ASD, ADHD, ASD and ADHD, and control.

Compared with the control group:

  • Children with ASD, ADHD, or both had 1.48, 1.45, and 1.29 times the rate of total emergency department visits, respectively.
  • Children with ASD, ADHD, or both had 1.57, 1.41, and 1.80 times the rate of emergency department visits for ingestion/inhalation injuries, respectively.
  • Children with ASD had lower rates of orthopedic injuries and animal-inflicted injuries, children with both ASD and ADHD had lower rates of orthopedic injuries and similar rates of animal-inflicted injuries, and children with only ADHD had higher rates of both these injuries.

The researchers offered possible explanations for why children with ASD had lower rates of physical injuries such as orthopedic and animal-inflicted injuries. “Many children with ASD exhibit significant levels of comorbid anxiety, which tends to deter them from engaging in various physical activities, thereby reducing their exposure to physical injuries,” they wrote. Shmueli and colleagues added that Israeli law requires closer daily supervision for children with ASD than those with ADHD, and this may also have contributed to differences in injury rates.

“Thus, further studies should focus on evaluating the effects of adult supervision on the rates of injuries among children with ASD, ADHD, or both ASD and ADHD and examine possible injury prevention programs that can highlight the type of support that is most beneficial for these children,” they concluded.

For related information, see the Psychiatric Services article “Characteristics of Patients Served by a Statewide Child Psychiatry Access Program.”

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Source: https://alert.psychnews.org