Topic 1: Prevalence of ASD

Research shows that autism cuts across all nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures, as well as all social and economic classes.

• The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported in their 2016 study Community Report on Autism that 1 in 59 children have ASD, but that rate varies widely across states. The report suggests that these variations could be because of the method the study used to identify children with autism, or to the differences in how children with autism are identified in their communities and the access those children have to services. 

• In 2014, the CDC surveyed 11,091 parents nationwide as part of the National Health Interview Survey, and the results showed that about 1 in 50 children were diagnosed with ASD. These results were published by Zablotsky et. al. in the National Health Statistics Reports in November 2015.

• A 2011 study by Kim et. al., which was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, tested all children between 7-12 in a single community in South Korea and found ASD at a rate of 1 in 38 children. This study used a different method than the studies conducted by the CDC's Community Report on Autism study. The CDC's study relied on record reviews. This Korea study is the only known "population study" that conducted screening and assessments on the children themselves, studies that were completed by evaluators with an expertise in diagnosing ASD and other developmental disabilities.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2016 Community Report on Autism. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/addm-community-report.html.



Grinker, R. R., Chambers, N., Njongwe, N., Lagman, A. E., Guthrie, W., Stronach, S., … Wetherby, A. M. (2012). “Communities” in Community Engagement: Lessons Learned from Autism Research in South Africa and South Korea. Autism Research : Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 5(3), 201–210. http://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1229.


Kim, Y. S., Leventhal, B. L., Koh, Y. J., Fombonne, E., Laska, E., Lim, E. C., … Grinker, R. R. (2011). Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders in a total population sample. American Journal of Psychiatry 168(9), 904-912. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10101532.


Schechter, R. and Grether, J. K. (2008). Continuing increases in autism reported to California’s developmental services system: mercury in retrograde. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(1), 19-24. doi: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2007.1


Zablotsky, B., Black, L. I., Maenner, M. J., Schieve, L. A., and Blumberg, S. J. (2015). Estimated prevalence of autism and other developmental disabilities following questionnaire changes in the 2014 National Health Interview Survey. National Health Statistics Report, 87, 1-21. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr087.pdf.