Autismo

01/05/12

Autism Prevalence Up 78% in the US (printer-friendly)

www.meds c ape.c om

Autism Prev alence Up 78% in the US
Reasons for Increase Unclear
C a ro l i n e C a s s e l s

Marc h29, 2012 — The prevalenc e of autis m s pec trum dis orders (ASDs ) has inc reas ed by 78% s inc e 2002, a new
report from the Centers for Dis eas e Control and Prevention (CDC) s hows . However, theex ac t reas on for this
inc reas e is unc lear.
Overall, the report's data, derived from the Autis m and Developmental Dis abilities Monitoring (ADDM) s urveillanc e
network , s how that in 2008,1 in 88 c hildren aged 8 y ears — 1 in 54 boy s and 1 in 252 girls — had an ASD
diagnos is by age 8, a s ignific ant jump from the c urrent es timate of 1 in 110.
This mark s an es timated 23% increas e s inc e the las t report in 2009 and a 78% inc reas e s inc e 2002. Ac c ording
to the CDC, s ome of this inc reas e c an be attributed to the way c hildren with ASD are identified, diagnos ed,and
s erved in their c ommunities , although ex ac tly how muc h is due to thes e fac tors is unk nown.
"Thes e data c onfirm that the es timated prevalenc e of ASDS identified in the ADDM networks urveillanc e
populations c ontinues to inc reas e. The ex tent to whic h thes e inc reas es reflec t better c as e as c ertainment as a
res ult of inc reas es in awarenes s and ac c es s to servic es or true inc reas es in prevalenc e of ASD s y mptoms is not
k nown," the report authors write.
The s tudy is publis hed in the Marc h 30 is s ue of the CDC public ation Morb idity and MortalityW eek ly Report.
"To unders tand more, we need to k eep ac c elerating our res earc h into ris k fac tors and c aus es of autis m s pec trum
dis orders ," Coleen Boy le, PhD, MSHy g, direc tor ofCDC's National Center on Birth Defec ts and Developmental
Dis abilities , s aid in a s tatement.
The s tudy als o s hows that more c hildren are being diagnos ed by age 3, an inc reas e from 12%...