The proportion of American children, whose autism spectrum disorder is estimated to have increased in 2022, continues to have a long-term trend. Released data Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of those ages 8, one in 31 people were found to have autism in 2022, compared to one in 36 people in 2020. That rate is almost five times higher than the number in 2000, when agencies first began collecting data.
Health agencies noted that the increase is most likely driven by better perceptions and screening, as it is not because autism itself is becoming more common.
It diverged surprisingly well from the rhetoric of the country’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said on Tuesday that “the autism epidemic is ramping.”
Kennedy has repeatedly tried to connect the increase in autism with vaccines. Dozens of studies For decades when such a link could not be established. Nevertheless, the Health Secretary has launched a federal study to revisit the possibilities and hired a well-known skeptical vaccine to oversee its efforts.
Kennedy recently announced efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services to identify “the origin of the epidemic” by September.
“They’re doing this,” said Katherine Lord, a psychologist and autism researcher at the University of California David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles.
Instead, a key part of the increase could be attributed to years of widening diagnosis to capture milder cases, Dr. Lord said, but he also said it could raise awareness of stigma and support services.
Still, she left the possibility that other factors contribute to more children who develop autism. “We can explain a lot of increases, but perhaps not everything,” Dr. Lord said.
“But whatever it is, it’s not a vaccine,” she added.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social interactions, communication, sensory problems, repetitive interest and difficulties in behavior.
The cause remains largely unknown, but researchers believe it has a strong genetic component. “It’s very unlikely that it could be one cause or even a few causes,” Dr. Lord said.
New data was collected by the CDC Autism and Developmental Disorder Surveillance Networkused health and education records of over 274,000 children at 16 sites nationwide to estimate autism rate.
The prevalence of disability has been steadily rising since 2000 when the network first began tracking.
Other trends were evident in new research. White children and children in wealthy socioeconomic regions have long had the highest percentage of autism in the United States, but that trend reversed in 2018.
Since 2020, the proportion of black and Latino children has been known to be autistic, and no longer has any links to wealthy communities found in the data.
The CDC reported a prevalence of 3.7% of black children, 3.3% among Hispanic children, and 3.8% among Asian American children.
Autism has long been associated with juveniles, and the differences that may be linked to genetics are that girls are now diagnosed at a higher rate as they are now increasingly aware of the subtle ways in which disability manifests, often manifesting in teen years.
According to the CDC, autism was 3.8 times higher than that of girls in 2022, down from 3.8 times higher than in 2020.
The data also showed the surprising variability in autism diagnosis by geography from 5.3% of 8-year-olds in California to just 1% to just 1% in Texas.
The availability of specific medical and educational resources increases the likelihood that these children will be identified. For example, California has a program that trains local pediatricians to identify signs of autism at an early age, and a community center that provides autism services.
Pennsylvania, which had the second highest prevalence, has a state Medicaid program that guarantees compensation for children with developmental disabilities regardless of their parents’ income.
Source: www.nytimes.com
