ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2023
The role of inflammation in the prospective associations between early childhood sleep problems and ADHD at 10 years: findings from a UK birth cohort study.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sleep in Young Children With Autism, ADHD and Combined Presentations.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- Investigating the prospective associations of childhood sleep problems with persistent depression in emerging adulthood: the mediating role of inflammation.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Associations between objectively and subjectively measured sleep outcomes among elementary school children in Rhode Island.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Early childhood sleep quantity, but not caregiver-reported sleep problems, predicts impulse control in children at age 8 years.Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence · 2024Article
- The Association between Glucose 6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.Nutrients · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
backgroundSeveral underlying mechanisms potentially account for the link between sleep and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including inflammation. However, studies so far have been cross sectional. We investigate (a) the association between early childhood sleep and probable ADHD diagnosis in childhood and (b) whether childhood circulating inflammatory markers mediate these prospective associations.
methodsData from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children were available for 7,658 10-year-old children. Parent-reported sleep duration, night awakening frequency and regular sleep routines were collected at 3.5 years. The Development and Wellbeing Assessment was administered to capture children with clinically relevant ADHD symptoms, or probable ADHD diagnosis. Blood samples were collected at 9 years, from which two inflammatory markers were obtained [interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP)]. Logistic regression analyses were applied to investigate the associations between sleep variables at 3.5 years and probable ADHD diagnosis at 10 years. Further, path analysis was applied to examine the potential mediating role of inflammation at 9 years (as measured by CRP and IL-6) in the associations between early sleep and ADHD at 10 years.
resultsLess regular sleep routines (OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.28-0.93, p = .029), shorter nighttime sleep (OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.56-0.89, p = .004) and higher night awakening frequency (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.06-1.52, p = .009) at 3.5 years were associated with higher odds of ADHD at 10 years. Further, IL-6 at 9 years, but not CRP, mediated the association between irregular sleep routines and ADHD (bias-corrected estimate, -0.002; p = .005) and between night awakening and ADHD (bias-corrected estimate, 0.002; p = .003).
conclusionsSeveral sleep problems in early childhood constitute a risk factor for probable ADHD diagnosis at 10 years. Further, these associations are partially mediated by IL-6 at 9 years. These results open a new research vista to the pathophysiology of ADHD and highlight sleep and inflammation as potential preventative targets for ADHD.
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