One in 31 8-year-old children had autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 2022, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This represents an increase from the one in 36 children identified in 2020 and a significant jump from the one in 150 children reported back in 2000. The findings were published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
While the overall rate of ASD was 32.2 per 1,000 children, prevalence varied widely across sites, from 9.7 in Laredo, Texas to 53.1 in San Diego, California.
“Research has not demonstrated that living in certain communities puts children at greater risk for developing ASD,” wrote Kelly A. Shaw, Ph.D., of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, and colleagues. “Differences in the prevalence of children identified with ASD across communities might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.” For example, San Diego’s Get SET Early initiative has trained hundreds of local pediatricians to screen and refer children for assessment as early as possible.
The report also showed that the prevalence of ASD or suspected ASD among 4-year-olds was higher in 2022 than four years prior, further supporting that continued improvements in early identification of ASD are contributing to the prevalence increase.
“Opportunities exist to learn from successful policies, systems, and practices in different communities and implement approaches for equitable identification or service eligibility to help families or persons receive the support they need as early as possible,” Shaw and colleagues wrote.
Other findings in the latest CDC data include:
- ASD was about 3.4 times more prevalent in boys than girls.
- ASD prevalence was higher among Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic children compared with White children at age 8, continuing a pattern first observed in 2020.
- About 40% of children with ASD had co-occurring intellectual disability (ID), with Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic children being more likely than White children to have ID.
The 2022 edition of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network included data from 4- and 8-year-olds from 16 surveillance sites (one each in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin; and two sites in Texas).
For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “For ASD, Psychiatrists Must Continuously Monitor Patients, Assess Therapies.”
(Image: Getty Images/iStock/Andrii Lysenko)
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