Children who are the youngest in their class are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) 60 percent more often than kids who are the oldest in the class, leading researchers to believe that the younger students' natural immaturity is often mistaken for ADHD. It is estimated that more than 1 million children in the United States have been wrongly diagnosed with ADHD.
More facts about ADHD:
- Almost 10 percent of children in the U.S. between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD — that's almost 5 million children in total.
- The states with the highest numbers of children diagnosed with ADHD are North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana and Delaware. Nevada is the state with the fewest ADHD diagnoses, and most of the Southwestern states have fewer than 8 percent of their children diagnosed with ADHD.
- Boys are more than twice as likely as girls to receive an ADHD diagnosis, and Hispanic children have the lowest rate of ADHD diagnosis out of the major demographic groups.