Tuesday, March 26, 2013

CDC Study Pegs Autism Prevalence at One Child in 50

By Christina Samuels from On Special Education

From guest blogger Alyssa Morones:

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 50 school-aged children has an autism spectrum disorder. That's a significant increase from 2008, when the CDC estimated that 1 in 88 children had the disorder.

The data for this report came from a study by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, which surveyed more than 95,000 parents with children under 17 years old.

In an interview with the Associated Press, health officials said that this is not an indication that autism is occurring more often. Rather, the results suggest that doctors are diagnosing autism, especially milder cases, more frequently.

The CDC gathered this data by randomly phoning households identified as having children under the age of 17. Of the households called, less than a quarter of parents agreed to the survey, which researchers attributed to the study using both landlines and cell phones to reach parents.

Read more HERE.

No comments: