Autism Spectrum Disorder Prevalence Rises Among Minority Children, CDC Report Finds

The rate of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to increase, particularly in non-white children, a CDC surveillance summary finds, highlighting the need for enhanced infrastructure that provides equitable diagnostic, treatment, and support services.

“For the first time among children aged 8 years, the prevalence of ASD was lower among White children than among other racial and ethnic groups, reversing the direction of racial and ethnic differences in ASD prevalence observed in the past,” authors wrote in the report. “Black children with ASD were still more likely than White children with ASD to have a co-occurring intellectual disability.

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The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network is a surveillance program consisting of 11 sites across the United States that estimates the prevalence of ASD among children aged 8 years. Staff review developmental evaluations and records from community medical and educational service providers to formulate those estimates.

Children in the network met the case definition if their record documented one of the following:

• An ASD diagnostic statement in an evaluation;
• A classification of ASD in special education; OR
• An ASD International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code.

Of the 6,245 children who met this definition, 37.4% met all 3 classification types, 74.7% had a documented ASD diagnostic statement, 65.2% had a documented classification of ASD in special education, and 71.6% had a documented ASD ICD code.

The 2020 report found the following statistics per 1,000 children aged 8 years across all ADDM sites:

• The overall prevalence of ASD was 1 in 36 children;
• ASD was 3.8 times more prevalent in boys than girls—4% in boys and 1% in girls; and
• Lower in non-Hispanic White children (24.3) and children of 2 or more races (22.9) than among non-Hispanic Black or African American Black (29.3), Hispanic (31.6), and non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander (33.4) children.

Study authors urged public health actions to shift towards equity. “Similar to previous reporting periods, findings varied considerably across network sites, indicating the need for additional research to understand the nature of such differences and potentially apply successful identification strategies across states,” they said.

Reference

Maenner MJ, Warren Z, Williams AR, et al. Prevalence and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years—autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 Sites, United States, 2020. MMWR Surveill Summ 2023;72(No. SS-2):1–14. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7202a1.