COLUMBUS – The results of a new study from OSU’s Wexner Medical Center surprised the researchers who found that athletes with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder are more likely to compete in team contact sports than individual sports, which could increase their risk of injury.
While they expected athletes with ADHD to gravitate toward individual sports, they found that they were twice as likely to compete in team sports and 142 percent more likely to play a contact sport, like football, hockey, lacrosse or soccer, said Dr. James Borchers, director of the hospital’s Division of Sports Medicine.
Another researcher believes the athletes are drawn to the contact sports because of the impulsiveness that sometimes accompanies ADHD.
“We know in young people with ADHD that they do have an increase in impulsivity and a little bit more reckless behavior,” said Dr. Trevor Kitchin, primary care sports medicine fellow. “We’re not saying that ADHD led to injury, but given its known characteristics, it may be putting these athletes at higher risk, especially in contact sports.”
While Borchers and Kitchin expected to find that ADHD athletes would be inclined to take up individual sports, like golf or tennis, where they have more control, there is more repetitiveness and they don’t have to worry about teammates or opponents, they said.
Research has shown that participating in sports can help mitigate symptoms of ADHD in children and doctors encourage parents of children with ADHD to let them try any sport they’re interested in, Borchers and Kitchin said.
The study, presented at the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, analyzed more than 850 athletes who competed in a variety of sports over a five-year period at Ohio State.
The researchers found that just over 5.5 percent of athletes were diagnosed and treated for ADHD, which is about the same percentage found in the general student population.
It is estimated there are more than 6 million children in the United States with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.