New ADHD diagnoses rise sharply among young people in Hesse

The number of children and adolescents receiving a new ADHD diagnosis in Hesse rose by 24% in 2024, according to the latest children’s and youth report from health insurer DAK-Gesundheit. The increase brought the estimated total to around 15,400 young people across the state, well above the national rise of 16%.

Ralf Moebus, head of the Hesse branch of the Professional Association of Pediatricians and Adolescent Doctors, expects the number of new attention disorder diagnoses, with or without hyperactivity, to continue rising. He said parents often face greater pressure and have fewer resources to provide supportive learning environments at home. He also pointed to increasingly uncritical media use as a factor that can intensify development problems.

Boys accounted for roughly twice as many new diagnoses as girls, with about 10,200 boys compared with 5,200 girls. But the increase among girls was substantially higher than among boys. Diagnoses among girls rose by around 32% from the previous year, compared with 20% among boys.

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For the future, I expect the number of newly diagnosed attention disorders with and without hyperactivity to continue rising.

Moebus said the figures suggested that ADHD had long been underdiagnosed in girls because their symptoms often appear less conspicuous than those of boys. DAK said the increase affected all age groups, although primary school children between five and nine were most frequently affected.

The data showed that 4.8% of children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 received medical care for an ADHD diagnosis. For the special analysis, research teams from Vandage and Bielefeld University examined billing data from about 85,800 DAK-insured children and adolescents in Hesse up to age 17.

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This shows that ADHD had long been underdiagnosed in girls, since the symptoms often appear less conspicuously than in boys.