Late adolescence and the transition to adulthood is a highly challenging and potentially critical period for young people with ADHD that can lay the foundations for diverging adulthood trajectories. Many of the conditions that frequently co-occur with ADHD, such as depression, delinquency and substance misuse, often emerge in adolescence. Major life transitions at this age, such as leaving education, starting work or moving out of the parental home, lead to multiple new demands and changes in available support networks, further increasing the vulnerability of young people with ADHD. Yet most young people with ADHD do not receive appropriate interventions during this vulnerable period due to both their disengagement from clinical services during the transition to adult ADHD services and our limited understanding of real-world targets for more holistic interventions.
Remote measurement technology offers the potential to: a) obtain ongoing, long-term, real-world data at a level of detail that was previously impossible; b) identify real-world targets for intervention that include modifiable environmental factors and health behaviours; and c) transform monitoring, self-management, personalised treatment and engagement with clinical services during ADHD transition.
Using our new ADHD Remote Technology (ART) system, incorporating a wearable device and smartphone apps, we are conducting a large-scale remote monitoring study with young people with ADHD during the transition period. Each participant is in the ‘ART-transition’ study for 24 months. Using data from the ART-transition study, the student will address the following three main aims:
Aim 1: Investigate participant retention and engagement patterns, and their predictors, across wearable, Active App (e.g., questionnaires), and Passive App (e.g., GPS) data streams.
Aim 2: Use longitudinal machine learning techniques with the rich remote monitoring data to identify factors predicting changes in ADHD outcomes during the transition period (e.g. clinical symptoms, functioning, lifestyle, social support, employment/studies).
Aim 3: Analyse qualitative interviews from a participant subgroup to explore their experiences of study participation and transition to adult services.
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