Adolescents with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder/learning disability and their proneness to accidents

Objective : The aim of the study was to determine if attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)/ learning disability (LD) adolescents are more prone to accidents and to investigate the parental mode of coping with that risk. Methods : One hundred and eight high school pupils diagnosed with ADHD/LD and studying in an institute of "special education" were examined and interviewed on the subject of accidents. Eighty-seven pupils, studying in a nearby academic high school, served as a control group. Results : The results showed that pupils in the study group had been involved in 0.57 ± 1.6 accidents (until the present study) in comparison to 0.23 ± 0.4 accidents in the control group (p=0.001). The accidents in the ADHD/LD study group had occurred at the mean age of 11.1 ± 3.4 yr. Eight decimal three percent of these pupils had been involved in recurrent accidents. Circumstances and locations where the accidents occurred were: falls while running or participating in sports activities (38.5%), home environment (23%), school environment (19.2%) and road accidents (11.5%). Conclusion : The study shows that there is a real risk for ADHD/LD adolescents to be involved in all kinds of accidents. Parents should be counting on the help of professional advisors to decrease that risk. Physicians should caution these adolescents and their parents about that risk and advise them on ways and means of accident prevention.