ADHD in Childhood Linked to Mid-Life Health Problems, Big Study Warns 🧠➡️💔
- MediaFx
- 39 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Key Facts:
Kids with higher ADHD traits at age 10 had a 14% higher chance of having 2+ physical health problems (like migraine, back pain, cancer, diabetes) by age 46.
Those likely meeting ADHD criteria in childhood had a 42.1% chance of physical multimorbidity by 46 vs 37.5% in non-ADHD peers.
Women with childhood ADHD traits were more likely than men to face physical health–related disability in mid-life.
Study tracked 10,930 people from the 1970 British Cohort (England, Scotland, Wales) over 46 years.
Worse outcomes were partly explained by higher mental health issues, higher BMI, more smoking, more stress, social exclusion, and poorer access to timely care in people with ADHD.
A major long-term UK study has drawn a worrying line from childhood ADHD traits to physical health struggles in mid-life, suggesting that what looks like “just hyperactivity” in school years can echo across decades. Researchers from University College London and the University of Liverpool followed 10,930 people born in a single week in 1970 across England, Scotland, and Wales, using parent and teacher questionnaires at age 10 to rate ADHD-type behaviours like inattention and impulsivity, whether or not the children ever got a formal diagnosis. Decades later, by age 46, those who showed higher ADHD traits as kids were 14% more likely to report multiple physical health conditions, including migraine, back problems, cancer, diabetes and other chronic issues, and had greater physical health–related disability, with the risk especially pronounced for women.
The numbers are stark: children in the top ADHD-like range (about 5.5% of the sample) faced a 42.1% probability of physical multimorbidity by mid-life compared to 37.5% in those without high ADHD traits, a gap that may look small but scales massively at population level. The authors argue this isn’t some mysterious curse of ADHD alone but the fallout of a cluster of challenges: people with ADHD traits in the cohort tended to struggle more with mental health, had higher body mass index, smoked more, experienced more stressful life events and social exclusion, and were less likely to access screening and early medical care in time. All of that fits what clinicians already see – ADHD makes impulse control harder, fuels need for quick rewards, and often leads to disadvantage that compounds over time. Senior author Joshua Stott called the findings another piece of “concerning evidence” that people with ADHD are more likely to experience worse health across their lifespan, building on earlier work from the same group in 2025 that linked adult ADHD to reduced life expectancy.
Know someone with ADHD? Share this and talk about early support and lifestyle changes. 🧠💬
