OBJECTIVES: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is an adult-onset, chronic, metabolic disorder that affects approximately 23.5 million adults in the United States and requires management with daily medications, blood glucose monitoring, regular HbA1c assessments, diet, and exercise. If T2DM patients also have difficulties with planning, working memory, and organization, their health problems may be compounded due to inappropriate management of their chronic health condition. The current study sought to estimate the prevalence of T2DM patients with the co-occurrence of symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a neurobehavioral condition that impairs organization and executive planning that affects between 1–6% of adults in the United States.
METHODS: The study design utilized an internet-based panel of 567 T2DM cases that consented to participate in a survey. In addition to de-identifi ed demographic data, respondents were asked to provide information on diabetes self-care, HbA1c values, ADHD symptoms, and health care resource utilization.
RESULTS: The results indicated that those respondents who had symptoms of ADHD had more office visits for diabetes-related issues (p .0002), more office visits for illness or injury (p .0007), and more hospitalizations for illness or injury (p .0493) compared with T2DM respondents without symptoms of ADHD. For those who reported HbA1c values, regression tree analyses suggested low diabetes self-care scores and high ADHD symptom scores were associated with worse HbA1c values.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the co-occurrence of T2DM and ADHD symptoms could result in poor HbA1c management and may lead to increased resource utilization.
