Autism diagnoses more common than reported

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ASPartOfMe
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19 Feb 2018, 12:54 am

https://www.spencerdailyreporter.com/story/2485947.html

Quote:
A new, comprehensive analysis by the University of Iowa published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found previous diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder have underestimated the number of American children suffering with the disorder.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, used by the UI in its analysis, estimate 2.4 percent of American children ages 3-17 have an autism diagnosis. Previous estimates by the Autism and Development Disabilities Monitoring Network updated in 2016 found a rate of 1.46 percent of autism spectrum disorder in American children.

"The thing that we showed was estimates of the prevalence of autism was greater than that of previous studies," said Lane Strathearn, UI physician director of the Center for Disabilities and Development. "What the previous studies have shown is that over time there was an increase of prevalence of autism. Our study was over a shorter time frame, it didn't show an increase over time, but the overall rate was higher than previously reported. That is significant because every child who is diagnosed with autism is in need of many resources from school support, therapies and family assistance. With the higher rate of autism reported, there are more children throughout the United States in need of these intensive and costly resources


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Lintar
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24 Feb 2018, 9:06 pm

These are just the ones who now have an official diagnosis, so the actual percentage would be higher than 2.4.

"What the previous studies have shown is that over time there was an increase of prevalence of autism" - So what is causing it? Some people insist that autism is entirely genetic in origin, but it's not looking that way.