The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics released a study entitled “Changes in Prevalence of Parent Reported Autism Spectrum Disorder in School-aged U.S. Children: 2007 to 2011-2012.” They found that 1 in 50 children ages 6-17 now have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study’s conclusion is that the increase can be accounted for by increased diagnoses of children with previously unrecognized ASD. The last CDC report in 2008 found that 1 in 88 children were identified with autism. That prevalence estimate was derived from school and medical records. The new study, however, was based on a national phone survey of 95,000 parents. This prevalence estimate doesn't focus only on 8-year-old children, the population used for deriving the 1 in 88 number reported in 2012. Rather, it includes the number of individuals diagnosed with ASD in 2011 and 2012 who were ages 6 to 17. The 2007 percentage of the population meeting that description was 1.16%. The current CDC numbers place the prevalence for 2011-2012 at 2%.
An analysis of the data indicates that overall, the number of individuals with autism hasn't necessarily increasing dramatically. The authors of the CDC report note that the 14% of children ages 14 to 17 who were diagnosed at age 7 or later received their diagnosis “well beyond” the time when autism signs and symptoms become apparent. In addition, more than half these children were classified as having “mild” ASD, according to their parents. The authors comment, “Together, these findings suggest that the increase in prevalence of parent-reported ASD may have resulted from improved ascertainment of ASD by doctors and other health care professionals in recent years, especially when the symptoms are mild. Changes in the ascertainment of ASD could occur because of changes in ASD awareness among parents or health care professionals, increased access to diagnostic services, changes in how screening tests or diagnostic criteria are used, or increased special education placements in the community.” The report concludes: “Increases in the prevalence of parent-reported ASD continued through 2011–2012, and much of the recent increase, especially for children aged 6-13, was the result of diagnoses of children with previously unrecognized ASD.” Nevertheless, it is critically important for parents, educators, and health care professionals to be aware of the warning signs (red flags) of ASD in order to identify children at-risk and provide early intervention/treatment.
Lee A. Wilkinson, PhD is the author of the award-winning book, A Best Practice Guide to Assessment and Intervention for Autism and Asperger Syndrome in Schools, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
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