Infants get their very first test only minutes after they’ve left the womb. Doctors assess a new infants APGAR score in the first five minutes of life to evaluate whether they need help to stabilize their heart or breathing. APGAR reflects breathing, heart rate, reflexes, skin color and muscle tone. Most babies score an eight or a nine, and nine and ten scores are considered reflections of a baby in the best of health.
A new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics has shows that APGAR scores seem to have larger implications than just how much stabilization a child needs at birth. The study, conducted in Denmark, found that babies who score a five or a six on the APGAR test have a 63% higher risk of developing ADHD. Babies who come in between a one and a four on the APGAR have an increased risk of 75%.
The new findings are based on data from a study of 980,902 children born between 1988 and 2001. Children were observed starting at age three. The study doesn’t reveal why children with lower APGAR’s have a higher risk for ADHD.
But not everyone is convinced by this new data.
“You can’t really predict ADHD because of low APGAR scores,” Dr. Mani Pavuluri told AOL Health, director of the Pediatric Brain Research and Intervention Center in Chicago. But he will concede that APGAR scores can be a good reason to keep an eye out for symptoms of ADHD as children grow older.
“The fact that they have low APGAR scores at birth is a concern,” Pavuluri told AOL Health. “It’s a matter of the parents knowing there is a risk at birth.”
