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+--- Thread: Article There is no epidemic of autism. It’s an epidemic of need. (/thread-13867.html)
There is no epidemic of autism. It’s an epidemic of need. - C C - Mar 24, 2023
https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/23/autism-epidemic-cdc-numbers/
INTRO: On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced another increase in the prevalence of autism among children. In a pair of new reports — one focused on 8-year-olds and one on 4-year-olds — the CDC found that 1 out of every 36 children has autism. This is a significant increase from the 2021 estimate of 1 in 44, which was a big jump from 1 in 110 in 2006.
This increase may sound scary. But as autistic adults and as parents of children with autism, we advise you to relax. There is no “epidemic of autism.” Instead, what we face is an epidemic of need.
The main reason we are finding more autism is simple: Clinicians are getting better at spotting what was always there. There is no simple test for autism, so diagnosing it requires substantial training in observational techniques. As a result, diagnosis can vary significantly depending on the population and the competence of clinicians. The CDC reports significant variations in autism rates from state to state and even from one school district to another. Yet there is little biological evidence to explain this. In another example of the variation, prior reports found more autism in white children.
In the new reports, the balance has shifted, with increasing identification among people of color. We see that as an improvement, but we’ve still got a way to go, particularly when it comes to diagnosing autism in girls and women, in people with less visible symptoms, and others. The new CDC report finds a 4-to-1 ratio of male-female diagnoses. But we are skeptical of that number, which has barely changed over the past decade, even as overall prevalence has risen. In our academic work, we find that autistic female students often outnumber autistic male students in college groups... (MORE - details)