The relationship between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dietary habit and caffeine intake in upper-grade elementary school children

Court-Bin Jang; Hye-Young Kim

doi:10.4163/kjn.2012.45.6.522

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Jang and Kim: The relationship between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dietary habit and caffeine intake in upper-grade elementary school children

Research Article

Korean Journal of Nutrition

Korean Journal of Nutrition 2012; 45(6): 522-530.

Published online: 31 December 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4163/kjn.2012.45.6.522

The relationship between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dietary habit and caffeine intake in upper-grade elementary school children

Court-Bin Jang¹, Hye-Young Kim²

¹Nutrition Education Major, Graduate School of Education, Yongin University, Yongin 449-714, Korea.

²Department of Foods and Nutrition, Yongin University, Yongin 449-714, Korea.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. (hypkim@yongin.ac.kr)

Received 27 August 2012 Revised 2 October 2012 Accepted 14 November 2012

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study was performed in order to investigate the relationship between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dietary habit and caffeine intake in upper-grade elementary school children. The total number of the study subjects was 237 students (111 boys and 126 girls), where 30 students (12.7%) were diagnosed as ADHD. The dietary habit score of the ADHD group was significantly lower than that of the normal group. In particular, the ADHD group had lower dietary scores in consuming daily breakfast, diverse foods, fruit and milk than those in the normal group. Meanwhile, the daily intake frequency of instant noodle (ramyeon) was significantly higher in the ADHD group than that in the normal group. The mean caffeine intake of the students was 42.95 mg and the proportion of students consuming more than the ADI (acceptable daily intake) was 11.8%. The caffeine intake of ADHD group (63.63 mg) tended to be higher than that of the normal group (39.95 mg); however, it was not significantly different. The ADHD score of the students was negatively related with the dietary habit score (r = -0.279, p < 0.01) but positively related with caffeine intake (r = 0.164, p < 0.05). The dietary habit score had a negative relationship with caffeine intake (r = -0.180, p < 0.01) and a positive relationship with height (r = 0.195, p < 0.01). Caffeine intake had a negative relationship with the height of the students (r = -0.171, p < 0.05). In conclusion, ADHD in children was related to poor dietary habit and high caffeine intake.

Keywords: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dietary habit, caffeine, elementary school children

Figures and Tables

Table 1

General characteristics of the subjects

1) Mean ± SD 2) Number (%)

NS: Not significantly different between normal and ADHD group

^**: Significantly different between normal and ADHD group (p < 0.01)

Table 2

Dietary habit score of the subjects

1) Each dietary habit score is between 0~2points. Total dietary habit score is between 0~20 points 2) Mean ± SD 3) Significantly different between normal and ADHD group by independent t-test

^*: p < 0.05, ^***: p < 0.001

Table 3

Eating frequency of drinks, cookies and ice cream and snacks per day

1) Mean ± SD 2) Significantly different between normal and ADHD group by independent t-test (^*: p < 0.05, ^**: p < 0.01)

Table 4

Amount of caffeine consumption per day (mg/day)

1) Mean ± SD 2) NS: not significantly different between normal and ADHD group 3) Comparison by ADI (acceptable daily intake) for caffeine

Table 5

Dietary habit score and caffeine consumption by attention deficit or hyperactivity score

1) N (%) 2) Significantly different between normal and ADHD group (^*: p < 0.05, ^**: p < 0.01, ^***: p < 0.001). NS: not significantly different between normal and ADHD group 3) Mean ± SD

Table 6

Pearson's correlation coefficients of ADHD score, dietary habit score, caffeine consumption, height, and weight

^*: p < 0.05, ^**: p < 0.01

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