ASD more common in rich peole?

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There's a study (discussed here: http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... ealth.html ) that found that wealthier families are more likely to have ASD in the family than poorer ones.

The author speculates that it could be because people with some ASD traits have an aptitude for high-paying jobs in the sciences, IT, etc. and are also more likely to have autistic children, since ASD runs so closely in families.

Do you think this is plausible, or that the study is flawed? And if you think it's plausible what do you think are the reasons?

I'm from a middle class family (not rich), but both of my parents studied engineering (and my mom was one of the only women to graduate in her class in that field in 1953). They don't have ASD, but maybe they have some traits and it helped their studies and careers?

hey rich ASD fairy sprinkle some cash on my family
[b]

How about this:


Families with higher income levels are more likely to be able to afford the diagnostic process than poor folk.

If you have no health insurance and are barely surviving from month to month, you're more likely to die of cancer than a rich person who develops cancer - because they're more likely to get regular checkups, discover it early and get treatment. If you're poor you probably won't know you're sick until you're already eaten up with it.

I think you're both right. I live near Seattle, WA and just east of us is Microsoft, and Nintendo, and generally a lot of rich computer engineers. I did hear they have a high incidence of autism, and they have the money to pump into the school system, the health care industry, etc. There are several Ph.D. autism specialist floating around to soak up all the money.

Also, maybe the less well-off you are, the less likely you are to be diagnosed.

Gawd don't I wish.

there is a lot of ASD in one side of my family. thing is though they are not scientists, they tend to be artists or into history/sociology.

Simon Baron-Cohen found that autistic character traits (as measured by his AQ Test) were higher on average for staff and students in faculties such as engineering, computer science, natural science, and especially mathematics, than for students and staff in other faculties. The "non-technical" faculties had AQ Test scores similar to the general non-university population of eastern England. The highest-scoring academic group in his university population sample were people involved in the Mathematics Olympiad at Cambridge University.

Mild autistic personality characteristics can have adaptive value in modern, highly specialised, highly technical societies. So I would not be at all surprised if AS is more common among the children of mathematicians, engineers, natural scientists, and computer scientists - and these tend to be well-paid, and even highly paid, jobs. Put two people together who both have mild autistic characteristics, and the chances of them having a child with a diagnosable ASD is higher than two people with no autistic characteristics. That is quite consistent with what is known about the genetics of ASD, as far as I know. It is also consistent with observations of (say) Silicon Valley.

It is true, of course, that middle class families are more likely to afford and pursue diagnosis, but even after accounting for that, I believe there is a greater likelihood of ASDs occurring in certain types of professional families for perfectly understandable genetic reasons: mild autistic characteristics are an advantage in certain fields, and these traits are inheritable and increase the likelihood of producing children with ASDs.

However, I will found more logical if they had discovered some thing like "ASD more common in middle-class people?" - these kind of high-AQ profession (engineers, cientists, mathematicians, etc.) are middle class professions; the "rich" professions (bussinesmen, CEO, big lawyers, "celebrities", etc.) are usually very social.

But some points:

1 - These study compared the prevalence of ASD for local of residence, not for family* - probably "middle class" and "riches" live in the same general neighborhoods, even if not in the same street.

2 - They compared the prevalence of ASD for 1st, 2nd and 3rd tertiles; bur probably both "riches" and "midlle class" are in the 3rd tertile

* i.e., what the study says is not "sons of rich parents have more ASD" but "sons of parents who live in rich neighborhoods have more ASD"

Their reasoning makes sense, and so does Willards. I've seen more ASD in lower income families but that's just me. Both of my parents have high education and may achieve higher (they make decent money, we are comfortable but not rich) and I anticipate earning a graduate degree and making a fair amount of money as well.