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...hundred American children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). That stunning new statistic was released on Monday by the Federal Government, officially revising the 2007 federal estimate of 1 in 150 children. The new number puts U.S. prevalence on par with reported rates in England, Japan, Sweden and Canada. It is based on two separate and very different government-funded research studies: a telephone survey of 78,037 parents by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and a rigorous national surveillance study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In an unusual show of attention...
...extremely concerned about the apparent increase in estimated prevalence of autism spectrum disorders," said Ileana Arias of the CDC. "However, we urge extreme caution in interpreting this change. An increase in diagnosis does not necessarily mean that more children actually have ASD. Unfortunately, the information that we currently have doesn't allow us to give a true account of whether the apparent increase is an actual increase or the result of changes in the way we describe and diagnose ASDs...
...form of the disorder was recognized (today, ASD includes the milder forms known as Asperger's syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified); earlier diagnosis of ASD, which can now be recognized by age 2 in many cases; and the growing availability of special services and interventions for children identified with ASD. (See pictures of inside a school for autistic children...
...flurry of federal attention was occasioned by the publication of the HRSA survey in the journal Pediatrics. The survey - part of the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health - contained a number of intriguing data points. Most notable was the surprisingly high prevalence rate: one in 91 children ages 3 to 17 (1.1%) were described by parents as having an ASD diagnosis. Among boys, who are four times as likely to have autism as girls, the rate was 1 in 58. Even more mysterious, an additional group of children - 0.6% of the sample - were described by parents as having...
HRSA researcher Michael Kogan, the lead author of the study, admitted that it was hard to explain these vanishing cases of autism - which is by definition a lifelong condition. Yet nearly 40% of children who were diagnosed with autism, according to parents, no longer had the condition. It may be that such children received the autism label "to facilitate services for other conditions such as developmental delays," Kogan said. Or it could be that children were only tentatively classified as having ASD when they were very young and then the disorder was ruled out. (Read "Inside the Autistic Mind...