A study looked at ADHD and social life in older adults. It drew on 231 people aged 60 to 94 from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Of these, 23 met criteria for an ADHD diagnosis and 208 did not.
Older adults with ADHD were more often divorced or never married. This was true for about a quarter of them (26.1%). Among those without ADHD, the share was much lower (10.1%). After taking age into account, the ADHD group had about three times the odds of being divorced or never married. This was unlikely to be down to chance.
The ADHD group also had fewer family members in their social network. They saw fewer family members each week. They reported more emotional loneliness. That loneliness result was not adjusted for depressive symptoms, because the two were closely linked.
When the researchers looked at symptom levels instead of diagnosis, more symptoms went with giving more emotional support, more emotional and social loneliness, more recreational activity and lower income. ADHD was not linked to taking part in work.
The study had limits. Only 23 people had ADHD, so it had little power to detect effects. The adult cut-off of four symptoms instead of six is only partly validated, so some people may have been misclassified. Running many tests may have produced false positives. The frailest older adults may have been left out, which could mean ADHD's effects were underestimated.
The numbers Stats and what the terms mean
The statistics behind the plain-language claims above.
- Michielsen, 2013: difference in the share divorced or never married, with versus without ADHD, χ2 = 5.13, p = .02.
- Michielsen, 2013: odds of being divorced or never married rather than married, adjusted for age, OR 3.39, 95% CI [1.17, 9.84], p = .03.
- Michielsen, 2013: number of family network members, adjusted for age, B = −0.40, 95% CI [−0.66, 0.14], p = .002.
- Michielsen, 2013: number of family members seen weekly, adjusted for age, B = −0.34 [−0.61, −0.07], p = .01.
- Michielsen, 2013: emotional loneliness score, adjusted for age, B = 0.97 [0.18, 1.77], p = .02.
- Michielsen, 2013: how closely depressive symptoms and loneliness were linked, r = .54.
What the terms mean:
- χ2 A test of whether two groups differ in how often something happens.
- p How likely a result this strong would be by chance alone; smaller means less likely.
- OR An odds ratio; how many times higher the odds are in one group than another.
- 95% CI The range the true value most likely falls in.
- B How much the outcome changes for the ADHD group compared with the others. A minus sign shows the direction of the change, not its size.
- r How closely two measures move together, from 0 (not at all) to 1 (perfectly).
Source: Marieke Michielsen, Hannie C. Comijs, Marja Aartsen, et al.. The Relationships Between ADHD and Social Functioning and Participation in Older Adults in a Population-Based Study. Journal of Attention Disorders (2013). doi:10.1177/1087054713515748