ATLANTA (Feb. 9) - The largest U.S. study of autism has found that the troubling
condition is more common than previously understood.
'National Health Care Crisis'
About one in 150 American children has autism, U.S. health officials said Thursday,
calling the troubling disorder an urgent public health concern that is more common than
they once thought.
The new numbers are based on the largest, most convincing study done so far in the
United States, and trump previous estimates that placed the prevalence at 1 in 166.
The difference means roughly 50,000 more children and young adults may have autism
and related disorders than was previously thought.
Government scientists declined to call the results a complete surprise: The new estimate
is on the high end of a prevalence range identified in other recent studies, they said.
But one advocate said the study should cause policy-makers and the public to revise
how they think of autism.
"This is a greater national health care crisis than we thought even yesterday," said Alison
Singer, spokeswoman for Autism Speaks, the nation's largest organization advocating
services for autistic children.
The study should fuel efforts to get the government to spend hundreds of millions of
additional dollars for autism research and services.
"This data today show we're going to need more early intervention services and more
therapists, and we're going to need federal and state legislators to stand up for these
families," Singer said.
The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was based on 2002
data from 14 states. It calculated an average autism rate 6.6 per 1,000, compared to an
estimate last year of 5.5 in 1,000.
The new research involved an intense review of medical and school records for children
and gives the clearest picture yet of how common autism is in some parts of the country,
CDC officials said.
The results suggest 560,000 children and young adults have the condition.
However, the study population is not demographically representative of the nation as a
whole, so officials cautioned against using the results as a national average. The study
doesn't include some of the most populous states, like California, Texas and Florida.
Also, the study does not answer whether autism has recently been on the rise - a
controversial topic, driven in part by the contention of some parents and advocates that it
is linked to a vaccine preservative. The best scientific studies have not borne out that
claim.
"We can't make conclusions about trends yet," because the study's database is too new,
said Catherine Rice, a CDC behavioral scientist who was the study's lead author.
Autism is a complex disorder usually not diagnosed in children until after age 3. It is
characterized by a range of behaviors, including difficulty in expressing needs and
inability to socialize. The cause is not known.
Scientists have been revising how common they think the disorder is. Past lower
estimates were based on smaller studies. The study released Thursday is one of the first
scientific papers to come out of a more authoritative way of measuring it.
"This is a more accurate rate because of the methods they used," said Dr. Eric
Hollander, an autism expert at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
The study involved 2002 data from parts or all of 14 states - Alabama, Arizona,
Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Researchers looked specifically at children who were 8 years old because most autistic
kids are diagnosed by that age. The researchers checked health records in each area
and school records when available, looking for children who met diagnostic criteria for
autism. They used those numbers to calculate a prevalence rate for each study area.
Included were autism-linked conditions like Asperger disorder, which some experts say
might partly account for a higher rate.
Dr. Fred Volkmar, director of the Child Study Center at Yale University, said the
educational records researchers relied on in some states may be misleading.
Sometimes, if a child has problems that seem like autism, parents will push for an autism
label to get additional educational services, he said.
Rates varied dramatically among states, in some cases. The rate was 3.3 per 1,000 in
the northeastern Alabama study area and 10.6 per 1,000 in the Newark, N.J., metro area.
Researchers say they don't know why the rate was so high in New Jersey. They think the
Alabama rate was low partly because of limited access to special education records.
The study was not an effort to find the cause of autism, still a point of debate. While many
advocacy groups blame the vaccine preservative thimerosal, scientists are putting more
focus on possible genetic causes, according to a recent Stanford University study.
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2007-02-09 07:33:00