New Study: 1% of adults in the UK have Autism

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The NHS Information Centre, in the first study of its kind anywhere in the world, investigated the number of Adults in the UK who have Autism - they discovered that 1.8% of Men and 0.2% of Women are autistic.

This is exactly the same rate as seen in children. Thus, the prevalence of autism has not increased and the MMR etc. is not causing autism to increase.

Link to BBC News

Link to Autism Spectrum Disorders in adults study

Autism Spectrum Disorders in adults living in households throughout England - report from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007

Summary:

This report presents data on the presence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), based on the data collected at phases one and two of the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) 2007. These findings were not included in the initial survey report. Estimated disorder prevalence is presented by age, sex, ethnic group, marital status, highest educational qualification, equivalised household income, economic activity status, receipt of benefits, housing tenure, area level deprivation and predicted verbal IQ. The level and nature of treatment and service use is considered, although the sample size means that this cannot be explored in detail.

Key facts:

* Using the recommended threshold of a score of 10 or more on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 1.0 per cent of the adult population had ASD. Published childhood population studies show the prevalence rate among children is also approximately 1.0 per cent.
* The ASD prevalence rate was higher in men (1.8 per cent) than women (0.2 per cent). This fits with the gender profile found in childhood population studies.
* There is no indication of any increased use of treatment or services for mental or emotional problems among adults with ASD. This is borne out by the recent National Audit Office publication “Supporting People with Autism Through Adulthood”.
* A greater proportion of single people were assessed with ASD than people of other marital statuses combined. This was particularly evident among men.
* Prevalence of ASD was associated with educational qualification, particularly among men. The rate for men was lowest among those with a degree level qualification and highest among those with no qualifications.

I thought the absolute voice of Autism, autism speaks claimed it was 1 in 150.

This has to be wrong

/sarcasm

Oh no, those who promote the autism epidemic myth, would have you believe that the autism rate in adults is just 0.04% (4 in 10000) and has sky rocketed since the 1970s. The NHS study rubbishes this idea, the dubious claim that there are very few adults with autism has been proven wrong.

Awesome Autism stats topic

the Autism Quackers would rather this not be known because then their weirdo theories of chelaton, vaccines, and rainbow wavelength radiation poisoning are much more appealing and shift blame from genetics to environmental causes.

Hell, I could blame my grandfather, who was mustard gassed in WWI, for "passing" gassed "ether" onto my mother, who, of course, "passed" it on to me. But I did not pass it onto my kids. Maybe it dissipated.

The number of As individuals has increased as the world's population has increased. And the testing has become more complex and more people want to know why they are different. If you are born with AS, then it is in your genes, and if you are Dx as an adult you had it as a kid.

Most older adults (45 and up) are Boomers and because there were so many of us, we fell between the cracks for testing (and remember, AS was not a Dx until 1994 anyway). Only the most severely affected and those with behaviour problems were singled out when I was young, and if we got a Dx at all, it was usually for schizophrenia.

Maybe it is just me but Autism seems to be more recognized and acknowledgeable and perhaps in a tiny way respected in the UK as opposed to here in the US.

I seem to hear more about Autism when it's not in America.

It kinda annoys me if you understood why.

Just my opinion.

QFT. People trying to scare the general public.

What accounts for this so called epidemic is the redefining of the Autism spectrum to include various forms of obsessive-compulsive
disorders (once considered to be a neurosis), Attention-Deficit Disorder, dyspraxia, dyslexia, hyperlexia, and behavioral
disorders.

I think it's a definite step in the right direction. However, given the growing belief that not only are adults more under-diagnosed than children but also that females are more under-diagnosed than males, the total prevalence of autism must therefore be considerably MORE than 1 %!

Do we know for sure that females are more under-diagnosed than males? It's possible that females are better at hiding some of the more obvious autistic traits than men, but it could be that autism really is much more common in males than females. Perhaps some of the genes that can trigger autism are only found on the Y chromosome.

I didn't actually say that we know, just that there is a growing belief. I am quite happy to entertain that belief as at least a possibility. It doesn't even have to imply that the male/female prevalence is equal (though neither is that precluded) but that the gender gap in prevalence could be narrower than what is officially acknowledged via diagnosis.

It's a common belief that women have a higher EQ than men. To me, this says that we women most likely can "hide" our autistic traits differently. Much like a lot of men were diagnosed with schizophrenia, I have seen some very basic anecdotal evidence that most women are diagnosed with Anxiety Disorders. I have no real proof behind this, mind you. Even Attwood believes that the ratio is more like 2 to 1 with regards to men:women on the spectrum. Still more on the man side, but definitely a higher incidence in women than is reported.