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Almost 1,7% of US children affected by autism

One in 59 kids is affected by autism spectrum disorder, the new report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows. It is dramatically higher than previously reported one in 68. The result was obtained by implementing an active surveillance system that provides estimates of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children aged 8 years. It is based on 2014 data. It means that during the last four years autism may have spread even higher.

Difficulty with autism spectrum disorder consist of determining and differentiating autism of a bunch of similarly looking conditions and personal traits. There is no universal test that proves that a child is autist. It requires long examination, observation and interviews to determine autism with an acceptable reliability. Out of 10,000 kids labeled by local doctors as autists CDC team selected only 5,473 ‘true autists’. It is that base that was used in the later calculations.

US-averaged prevalence was determined as 1.68%. It is highly divergent from state to state. New Jersey [2,93%] shows highest autism rates and Arkansas [1,31%] – the lowest. There is no known reasons for the drastic regional difference as well as the causes of the disorder itself.




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