Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impaired social and communication skills and the presence of restrictive or repetitive behaviors. The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates the current prevalence of ASD at 1 in 68 children. This is a sharp increase from the CDC estimate of 1 in 150 children with ASD in 2002.

What’s new: On July 22, 2015, the American Journal of Medical Genetics published a study comparing the prevalence of ASD with other comorbid conditions, such as intellectual disability (ID), among 6.2 million children enrolled in special education programs in the United States. The researchers report that a decrease in ID diagnosis accounts for about 64 percent of the increase in autism prevalence between 2002 and 2010. Age of the child appears to influence the re-categorization of diagnosis, with older children seeing a greater shift toward autism diagnosis than younger children.

Why it’s important: These data suggest that healthcare professionals are using the diagnosis of ASD in place of comorbid classifications more often, and this accounts, in part, for the increase in ASD rates over the last decade.

How prevalent is autism?

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