Retrospective diagnosis of childhood ADHD using the Wender Utah Rating Scale

Abstract

Objective: An external validation of the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) against a clinical assessment is lacking, especially for French-speaking populations.

Method: Participants completed three subsets of the WURS-61 and were assessed for ADHD using the DIVA 2.0 semi-structured interview. Exploratory factor analyses were performed. Logistic regression models and Receiver-Operating Curves were used to determine the cut-off scores that predicted childhood ADHD with best accuracy.

Results: One hundred three adults were included. Three factors were extracted for the WURS-25 and WURS-K, and four for the WURS-29. Cut-off scores are 44, 24 and 42, respectively. When considering DSM-5 rather than DSM-IV criteria, these values changed to 44, 36 and 44, respectively. More than 83% of the participants had been correctly classified.

Conclusion: All three subsets of the WURS-61 retrospectively predict the presence of ADHD in childhood. This result might prove to be useful in screening and research procedures.

Keywords: ADHD; Analyse factorielle exploratoire; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; Courbes ROC; Factor Analyses; ROC Curve; Sensibilité et Spécificité; Sensitivity and Specificity; Statistical; TDAH; Trouble Déficit de l’Attention avec Hyperactivité.