Health Determinants of the quality of life among children with ADHD: a structural equation modelling approach

Health Determinants of the quality of life among children with ADHD: a structural equation modelling approach

The MOCHA project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 634201 (June 2015 - December 2018).

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Lay Summary
This research proposal is part of the activities planned within the Horizon 2020 project “Models of Child Health Appraised” (MOCHA; http://www.childhealthservicemodels.eu/), led by Professor Mitch Blair, Imperial College, London. The project has 19 scientific partners from 10 European countries plus Australia, Switzerland and the USA and aims to examine primary health care services for children in the 30 EU and European Economic Area countries.

The aim of this research is to investigate the complex pattern of the Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder health care across different European countries. The model aims to analyse the effect of several factors on our principal outcome of interest: the child quality of life.
In particular, we are interested in the relationships among the child quality of life and:
•   selected demographic characteristics, (e.g. gender, age and family ADHD history);
•   social relations and school performance;
•   clinical status (diagnosis and severity);
•   comorbidities, including disorders (oppositional defiant disorder, learning disorder, conduct disorder, anxiety, coordination problems, depression,…) and problems (sleep problems, decreased appetite, headaches, abdominal pain, changes in personality,…);
•   treatment (Drugs, educational interventions in school, speech therapy, psychomotor/ physiotherapy,…);
•   utilization of health services (contacts with primary care physician, accident and emergency rooms, referrals for therapy);
•   expenditure (application of local unit cost standards to resource units).
The statistical method used to analyse the data will be the Structural Equation Models (SEMs). The SEMs are confirmatory models consisting of a measurement model (which relates the latent variables with those observed) and a structural model (which describes the relationships between the latent variables).
The SEM will allow the estimation of both the direct effects of the factor(s) on the child quality of life and the indirect effects.
The findings of this research will be disseminated during the Concluding Public Conference of the MOCHA project that will be likely held in October 2018 in Brussels.

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