Autism diagnosis rates are going up. This is according to the latest research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Autism is a condition that affects how a person interacts with the world.
It affects more boys than girls. According to the research, about 4 out of every 100 boys and 1 out of every 100 girls who are 8 years old in the U.S. have autism.
This rate is the highest ever since the CDC started tracking autism in the year 2000. This tracking system is called the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.
The latest data from this network is from 2020. Two autism experts from Rutgers, Walter Zahorodny and Josephine Shenouda, helped with this research.
Some States Have Higher Autism Rates Than Others
The first part of the study was about how common autism is in different states. The researchers found that autism is most common in California, especially in the San Diego area.
There, about 7 out of every 100 boys who are 8 years old have autism. This is the highest rate of any area ever studied.
New Jersey, Minnesota, and California have the highest overall rates of autism. Maryland has the lowest rate among the 11 states in the ADDM Network.
The other states in the network are Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.
Why Does California Have Such High Rates of Autism?
Why does California have such high rates of autism? There could be many reasons.
One reason is that San Diego is trying very hard to diagnose autism as early as possible. This could lead to more accurate counts of how many children have autism.
California also has state-funded centers that help children with disabilities and their families.
These centers might be helping to identify more cases of autism. Other states might not have as many resources to diagnose autism, so they might be missing some cases.
Zahorodny says that the real rate of autism might not be that different between California and other states.
What might be different is that California has been very proactive in screening for autism and offering help to children with autism.
How Can Other States Improve Autism Detection?
Zahorodny thinks that other states can learn from California. He says that more states should screen all young children for autism. This can help to identify children with autism earlier, which can lead to better outcomes.
Another part of the study looked at how common autism is in 4-year-old children.
The researchers found that autism is becoming more common in this age group too. Just like with the 8-year-olds, autism rates were highest in California and lowest in Utah.
Why Are Autism Rates Increasing?
One big question is why autism rates are going up. We know that some things can increase the risk of autism, like being born early or having older parents.
But these factors haven’t changed much, even as autism rates have gone up.
Some people think that we’re just getting better at diagnosing autism. But Zahorodny says this can’t explain the whole increase.
He says that all types of autism, from mild to severe, are becoming more common in all groups of people. This suggests that something else is going on.
Some Interesting Findings From the Study
The study also found some interesting patterns in who gets diagnosed with autism. For the first time, white children were less likely to be diagnosed with autism than children from other racial and ethnic groups.
This is a change from the past, when white children were more likely to be diagnosed with autism.
The study also found that black children with autism were more likely to have an intellectual disability than white children with autism.
Over the last two decades, autism rates have gone up a lot. In 2000, less than 1 out of every 100 8-year-olds was diagnosed with autism. By 2018, more than 2 out of every 100 8-year-olds was diagnosed with autism.
The same trend is happening with 4-year-olds. In 2020, about 2 out of every 100 4-year-olds was diagnosed with autism.
But the rate was much higher in California, where almost 5 out of every 100 4-year-olds was diagnosed with autism.
Zahorodny says that these figures suggest that autism might be one of the most common disabilities.
But he also says that we still don’t understand why autism rates are increasing. This is a big problem that we need to solve.
If you care about autism, please read studies about a new cause of autism, and vitamin D could help lower the risk of autoimmune diseases.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about common signs and symptoms of autism, and gut health plays a role in autism.
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