U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the proportion of children and adolescents with ADHD who get appropriate treatment — EMC‑04 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), HRSA/MCHB

Baseline: 75.2 percent of children and adolescents aged 4 to 17 years with current ADHD had received treatment for ADHD (behavior treatment for children aged 4 to 5 years; medication and/or behavior treatment for children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years) in the past 12 months in 2016-17

Target: 79.4 percent

Numerator
Number of children and adolescents aged 4 to 17 years whose parent reported that the child currently has ADHD and who received behavioral treatment for ADHD if ages 4 to 5 years, and behavioral treatment or medication if ages 6 to 17 years.
Denominator
Number of children and adolescents aged 4 to 17 years whose parent reported a health provider diagnosis of current ADHD.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.10.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.1. This method was used because only baseline information was available. While Healthy People targets are applicable at the national level, this target will remain more stable when calculating targets by state.

Methodology

Methodology notes

Denominator is based on children whose parents answer yes on both questions about ADHD: having been 'ever told' the child had ADHD, and 'currently has' ADHD.

Numerator is based on children who currently have ADHD and receive recommended treatment, defined as:

  • For children ages 4-5 years of age: yes to having received behavioral treatment
  • For children ages 6-17 years of age: yes to having received behavioral treatment OR yes to taking medication

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Related, which includes objectives that have the same or a similar intent to either a measurable or developmental/archived objective in Healthy People 2020.

1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.