comparison of nutrients' intakes in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Background: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) is the most common chronic mental disorder among children. children with adhd may be at risk for a variety of nutrients' deficiencies. we aimed to assess the nutrients' intakes among adhd children and compare them with the healthy ones. methods: this was a hospital-based case-control survey over 120 adhd as the cases and 240 non-adhd children as the control participants aged 6-13 years. usual dietary intakes were assessed using a validated semi quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (ffq). the p-values were considered significant if they were < 0·05. results: energy: 2812.2 ± 1029.9 kcal/day vs. 3136.4 ± 1360.3 kcal/day, p = 0.001), fat: 78.3 ± 28.8 g/day vs. 87.2 ± 44.9 g/day, p > 0.001), and carbohydrate: 436.8 ± 192.6 g/day vs. 479.9 ± 244.2 g/day, p = 0.009) intakes were significantly lower in adhd than healthy children. similarly, consumption of calcium: 968.5 ± 358.3 mg/day vs. 1055.7 ± 453.4 mg/day, p = 0.03) and magnesium: 363.1 ± 173.9 mg/day vs. 411.9 ± 220.8 mg/day, p = 0.01) were significantly lower in the cases than control group. however, intakes of thiamin: 34.4±18.8 mg/day vs. 40.4 ± 25.6 mg/day, p = 0.002), riboflavin: 1.99 ± 0.76 mg/day vs. 2.21 ± 0.95 mg/day, p = 0.01), niacin: 24.9 ± 10.6 mg/day vs. 27.5 ± 13.2 mg/day, p = 0.01), and vitamin b5: 6.85 ± 3.35 mg/day vs. 7.49 ± 3.84 mg/day, p = 0.02) were significantly lower in the case than control group. conclusion: children with adhd consumed significantly lower quantities of energy, macronutrients, calcium, magnesium, b vitamins (b1, b2, b3, b5), and vitamin c compared with the healthy children.