Are asthma and ADHD linked?

An increased risk of ADHD in people with asthma — and vice versa — could reflect a common inflammatory pathogenesis, researchers say.

The prevalence of asthma in those diagnosed with ADHD was 16.9%, compared with 11.5% in those without the neurodevelopmental disorder, according to a systemic review and meta-analysis of 49 studies.

Conversely, the prevalence of ADHD was 8.8% in people with asthma, compared with a prevalence of 5.6% in those without asthma, the researchers found.

The review covered more than 3.1 million people