Adult ADHD: International Statistics
ByA recent World Health Organization study indicates that employees with apparent symptoms of adult ADHD lose nearly 22 more work days a year than the average employee.
Additionally, this survey indicates an average of 3.5 percent of the international workforce may suffer from ADHD.
This figure is derived from a recent study, published in Occupational Environmental Medicine, involving adults in 10 countries: Mexico, Lebanon, the United States, Colombia, France and Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
Of those individuals, however, only a very small portion of individuals are actually receiving treatment. The percentage of persons getting treated varied greatly by nation — from 2.7% in the Netherlands to 12.7% in the United States.
Not surprisingly, the incidence of adult ADHD was even higher in those individuals who reported that they were unemployed. The percentage for this category topped 5.5 percent while the average percentage of employed individuals with adult ADHD stood at 3.5 percent.
This percentage held relatively stable across all 10 countries. The variations of those who suffered from this did not depend on whether an individual lived in an industrialized country or a so-call underdeveloped country as some individuals may initially have thought.
Researchers observed variations in other areas, though. For example, more men than women reported symptoms of adult ADHD. Those holding professional positions were less likely than blue collar workers to suffer with this problem.
The survey, which depended on the respondents themselves reporting their symptoms, was part of the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Survey Initiative.
After describing their childhood and recent adult behavior and mannerisms, the participants were asked to judge the number of days they missed work. Each day an individual was not at work was rated as one day, while each day a person reported a decrease in the quality or quantity of work performed was counted as a half a day of work “missed.”
It’s also interesting to note that more than half of the days “missed” could be attributed not to a physical absence from the workplace, but rather a reduction in the quality or quantity of work being performed while on the job.
The researchers concluded, given the amount of lost time at work, if this mental health problem would not be a good candidate for workplace screening and treatment.
The survey consisted of a self-reported assessment of the health problem. For this reason the participants were limited to those in the age group of 18 to 44. Adult ADHD, the researchers explained, began in childhood; the study depended on an accurate memory of childhood actions and events.
Of those who did meet the criteria for adult ADHD, the researchers also observed that a percentage of these individuals were receiving treatment for an emotional problem at the same time. The study did not reveal the nature of these problems.
Moreover, the actual number of individuals treated for co-existing conditions varied widely by country. In Mexico, for example, no worker received treatment for an emotional problem; in Belgium the percentage receiving treatment for other emotional conditions was 3.5 percent. In the Netherlands the percentage was more than 21 percent while in the United States the percentage was 43.4.
The scientists conducting the study said they believed that the incidence of adult ADHD in the Netherlands and the United States may be even greater. Better detection is possible, specifically in these countries where emotional problems seem to accompany the incidence of adult ADHD. If employees who were diagnosed with these emotional problems were also screened for adult ADHD at the same time then perhaps more individuals would be found to have this mental health concern as an underlying problem.
Then what is the next step? Logically, evaluation and examination of this problem are needed to see if workplace effectiveness could be improved enough to justify the cost of such a program. Additionally, testing for adult ADHD in the workplace, the researchers argue, is possible because the screening scales involved are relatively short, sensitive and specific.
But the scarcity of treatment of adult ADHD is not the only reason to initiate a workplace screening program, the authors of the study contend. Effective therapy for this health concern is relatively inexpensive, they explain. The lost days they conclude may be more easily retrievable than many believe.
To read more about the survey, click here.
What has been your experience? Please share your thoughts below.
Best,
Dr. Kenny
[tags] Adult ADD, Adult ADHD, ADHD Mexico, ADHD Lebanon, ADHD Colombia, ADHD France, ADHD Germany, ADHD Belgium, ADHD Italy, ADHD Netherlands, ADHD Spain
Reading an article like this one scares me. In the United States, employers want to get so much work time out of employees and expect them to work so many hours. I hope that a study like this one does not hurt the people in the work place that are trying to manage their ADHD. I would hate for employers to find a way to discriminate against ADHD people because they would assume they are not as effective.
I find it bizarre that a doctor should take at such a limited piece of research at face value.
The questions they used to determine Adult ADHD were based on the DSM-IV Diagnostic criteria for CHILDHOOD ADHD. It is well accepted that the DSM-IV Adult Diagnostic criteria will have different criteria. There is no evidence that this test accurately diagnosed ADHD.
Further the test looked at absent time from work but failed to establish whether ADHD adults were more of less effective when at work than they fellow non-ADHD Neuro-typical colleagues. It may well be that these ADHD adults provide a greater value to their employees than their NT colleagues. Their positive ADHD attributes of hyper-focus, speed of work, greater insight, creativity and the ability to “think outside the box” may well mean they are more productive and offer higher value to their employer. Simply assessing these adults on “hours worked” seems a pretty poor and simplistic evaluation of their worth to the organisation.
Finally though I believe it is of great value for all adults with ADHD to know that they have ADHD, I do not see that this is information that an employer should be privy to, without their employees explicit permission. To allow narrow-minded linear-thinking Neuro-typical managers to evaluate employees in such a one-dimensional fashion would allow discrimination and prevent them from hiring of ADHD employees. These ADHD employees are likely the very people who as entrepreneurs probably originally built the business and who help it to stay ahead of their competition with their creativity and insight.
ADHD is not a disorder, it is a different neurological type of wiring bringing both challenges and advantages, please ensure you see all aspects of this difference.
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for sharing your comments and thoughts.
While I agree with many of the points you make – i.e. the potential benefits to ADD/ADHD – when people can maximize their traits – I do disagree with some of your comments.
Firstly – the DSM-IV-TR has ADHD Criteria, which although they are not well suited for Adult ADHD, that is all we have. So, research which is done on adult ADHD always uses these criteria. We hope that the DSM-V committee with improve the criteria for ADHD is a couple of major ways: gender differences (i.e. to help to diagnose ADHD in females); and developmental criteria – i.e. to help with teen and adult ADHD diagnosis.
And, when it comes to ‘epidemiological data’ (i.e. data from community based studies), there are often limitations, nonetheless, it is an accepted and important form of research which helps us to move forward in our understanding the impact of a disorder on people in the community (and this applies to epidemiological studies in all areas of medicine).
Hi Kenny,
Thanks for your thoughtful response, I was a little upset by the negative tone of this report, so perhaps unreasonable flared off at you. I do take your points but as an adult ADDer, diagnosed in my late forties (UK barely recognises ADHD let alone Adult ADHD), I have struggled with undiagnosed ADHD at work over many years. I have not had extra days off but certainly have not always found it easy.
However, when I have been on form, I have been an exceptionally accurate and fast software programmer, creative marketer, passionate sales presenter, changed many business processes, invented new products and created/ developed/ managed/ led several successful IT start-up companies – all thanks to my ADHD. Despite “not fitting the mould”, undoubtedly much of my value-add at work has been due to my ADHD differences. The report would have missed all of this in it focus on work-hours.
Recently, thanks to my ADHD, I became so bored of IT that I am now training to be an ADHD Coach. I plan to help clients understand that ADHD is a mixed blessing, to understand their differences, to accept their challenges and to embrace their unique strengths. People with ADHD has been of immense benefit to society, without ADHD inventors, ADHD explorers, ADHD comics, ADHD creative artists, ADHD rule-breakers, ADHD stimulus-seekers and ADHD entrepreneurs, mankind would be very much poorer.
ADHD gives both problems and strengths, that’s the wonder of a less-regulated and constrained neurology. So when simplistic reports talk about lost work days without looking at the big-picture of ADHD its a little frustrating!
Andrew,
Thanks for sharing your story. I wish you well in your journey to help others with ADHD, and to be an advocate.
I agree with your points.
I also see the importance of this type of research. While it may have it’s downside, it also plays a very important role for ADHD – recognition, treatment, and support.
Dr. Kenny
Recently I’ve took my seven year old child to therapy and the first diacnosis was ADHD. Acording to the simthoms I’ve realized I suffer it too. The firs consecuence I’ve noticed is the inhability of sustain a stable job-live. I’ve been researching for some kind of tips, dayly conduct or actions to overcome the negative side of what I suppose is my case of ADHD. All I want is to give my family a normal and stable home, having a job that suports it.
[...] Being diagnosed with ADHD can be similar to being diagnosed with any major disease. Often, a diagnosis of ADHD can make you feel isolated and alone. Dr. Kenny Handelman recently released some international statistics on ADHD. Dr. Handelman found that an average of 3.5% of the world’s workforce has ADHD. The numbers vary by country from 2.7% to over 12%. I found this article very interesting because it proves that ADHD is not as isolated as once believed. You can read Dr. Handelman’s complete article here. [...]
ADHD I suffer many people. Even 2-3 % of the population it is a lot of. I think that in the conditions of crisis percent suffering ADHD has increased. Especially in poorly developed countries. It is accident for any country and with ADHD it is necessary to struggle.
I have a daughter with ad hd,and according to medical figures,i should have had the diagnoses too..
im wondering after studying the problem if its not pure evolutionary situation we are talking about?
isnt it a thought to check if lack of emotional and physsical activity(bearing in mind the hardship life required of previous generations as compared to the industrialized world)could be a soal course for this disorder?
as for my self i note in me and my daughter that high levels of physsical and mental challenges actually releases most of the tention and figeting involved,and that without it its impossible to maintain focus or even mood….
in the industrialized world,could this be a direct result of lack of attention /activities brought on by non attentive parenting, as result of comunitystructures/workstructures that have changed over to short spans for our genes to adapt?
in creating challenges for our kids mentally and physsically in stead of caving in for our own relaxations sake,might we not be able to create more intelligens in upcomming generations that are actually born with more capasity as result of evolution…
stands to reason that as the humanbrain develops ,it will need more attention then preveous generations in order to fulfill its cravings,but for a fact its getting less in a lot of people due to technology and advances that remove humanbeeings from the hardest situations in both areas…