Autism rates over the past two years of study, from 2010 and 2012, have gone unchanged, but researchers added that it was too early to tell if the overall prevalence rate has stabilized.
According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 68 school-aged children, and 1.5 percent of kids overall, were identified with autism spectrum disorder based on the study, which covered 11 communities across the United States for 2012.
While previous studies have shown an increase in autism from 2002 to 2010, the latest report did not indicate the same increase from 2010 to 2012.
"While the average percentage of children identified with (autism spectrum disorder) in all 11 communities stayed the same, in two communities, the percentage of children identified with ASD increased significantly between 2010 and 2012," said the CDC statement.
"The percentage of children identified with ASD ranged widely by community — in communities where both health and special education records were reviewed, estimates ranged from a low of 1.2 percent in parts of South Carolina to a high of 2.4 percent in parts of New Jersey," the statement continued.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which contributed to the CDC study,
stated that researchers collected data from regional monitoring sites that are part of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network.
Those sites were based in Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin.
Dr. Li-Ching Lee, a psychiatric epidemiologist with the Bloomberg School's departments of epidemiology and mental health, said that there are continued disparities in evaluation among racial and ethnic groups.
"For example, in Maryland, we found that Hispanic children were less likely to be evaluated for developmental concerns and therefore less likely to be identified," Lee said.
The CDC statement added that children identified with autism are not receiving comprehensive developmental evaluations as early as they could.
"Most children identified with ASD had concerns about their development noted in their health and/or special education records by age three years," noted the CDC. "… A lag between first concern and first comprehensive developmental evaluation may affect when children are being diagnosed and connected to the services they need."
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