New Prevalence Data for Individuals with ASD

This just in from Community of Practice on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Other Developmental Disabilities (CoP-ASD/DD).   Thanks for sharing!

A new telephone survey of parents found that 2% of school-aged children in the United States have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  The report was published on March 20th, 2013 by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services.

The report, “Changes in Prevalence of Parent-Reported Autism Spectrum Disorder in School-Aged Children: 2007 to 2011-2012” is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr065.pdf

Main findings of the report:

·          The prevalence of parent-reported ASD among children aged 6-17 years was 2% in 2011-2012 compared to 1.2% in 2007.

·          The change in prevalence estimates was greatest for boys and for adolescents aged 14 to 17 years. The prevalence in boys age 6-17 years old increased to 3.23%.

·          Much of the increase in the prevalence estimates from 2007 to 2011-2012 for school-aged children was the result of diagnoses of children with previously unrecognized ASD.

The survey was funded by HRSA and the data collection was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of CDC.  The data come from the National Survey of Children’s Health, a nationally-representative phone survey of households with children. This survey is conducted every four years. This new report from a survey of parents helps us understand what parents are experiencing.

Last year, CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network estimated that 1.1% (1 in 88) children had been identified with ASD. These estimates from the ADDM Network are based on data collected from health and special education records of children living in 14 areas of the United States during 2008. These 14 communities comprised over 8% of the United States population of 8-year-olds in 2008. You can read the latest ADDM Network community report here (pdf). To read the scientific article, click here.  The ADDM Network works with communities to further enrich our understanding – collecting information on why certain groups of children are more likely to be identified with autism than others, when children are likely to be identified, and what progress is being made to identify children earlier. The next CDC report on ASD prevalence from the ADDM Network is expected to be published in 2014. CDC will continue to update its ASD prevalence estimates based on findings from the ADDM Network.  To learn more about the ADDM Network site in Wisconsin, please visit www.waisman.wisc.edu/wisadds.

While the new report is based on a national telephone survey of parent experiences and not an epidemiologic study, it provides further evidence that the number of children being diagnosed with ASD appears to be increasing. 

For more information about CDC’s autism activities, visit www.cdc.gov/autism.  For free resources and tools to help parents and professionals track every child's early developmental milestones and to know how and when to take action on developmental delay, visit CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program Web site: www.cdc.gov/actearly.

For information about HRSA’s autism efforts visit http://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs/autism/index.html.