RESEARCH ARTICLE
Searching the Blood Lead Level in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Case-control Study in Tehran, Iran
Mohammad Vafaee-Shahi1, Samileh Noorbakhsh2, *, Elham Shirazi3, Mehrnoosh Purfallah4, Saeideh Ghasemi4, Aina Riahi4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 15
E-location ID: e187494452212161
Publisher ID: e187494452212161
DOI: 10.2174/18749445-v15-e221219-2022-64
Article History:
Received Date: 05/7/2022Revision Received Date: 7/11/2022
Acceptance Date: 17/11/2022
Electronic publication date: 30/12/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common behavioral problem in children. Identifying the associated risk factors of ADHD is very important for the prognosis and early diagnosis of the disease. Here, we evaluated the association between lead exposure and growth indexes in children with ADHD.
Materials and Methods:
This case-control study was conducted on 30 children with ADHD and 50 healthy subjects. The patient’s age was between 5-12 years. Demographic and clinical information of children were recorded. Blood lead levels were measured in all samples by atomic absorption spectrometry.
Results:
Children with ADHD had significantly higher mean BMI than the control group (16.54 ± 2.8 kg/m2vs. 14.82 ± 1.68 kg/m2; p=0.001). The mean of blood lead in children with ADHD was significantly higher than the normal group (10.58 ± 8.06 μg/dl vs. 7.52 ± 2.26 μg/dl; p=0.01). Multiple logistic analysis revealed one unit increase in BMI was associated with a higher risk of ADHD by 1.5 times (P=0.005; OR = 1.50), while one unit increase in blood lead level increased the risk of ADHD by 1.15 times (P=0.03, OR=1.15).
Conclusion:
Higher BMI and blood lead concentration are risk factors for ADHD among Iranian children.