Q&A on the News
Q: When I first heard about autism several years ago, the U.S. ratio was about 1 in 150 children. Recently they published U.S. ratios at approximately 1 in 70. Are the autism rates growing equally in the rest of the world, or do some countries have higher or lower rates than the U.S.?
—Allen Trent, Canton
A: Autism rates vary worldwide because countries and researchers conduct studies differently and "against different social constructs," a spokeswoman with the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative told Q&A on the News in an email. For example, South Korean families with children who are slow to develop won't seek opinions or diagnosis because of the stigma of autism spectrum disorder, an article in the Harvard College Global Health Review stated.
“There are no crystal clear answers about whether or how much autism is indeed on the rise and what the international statistics truly mean,” Simmons Foundation’s Stacey Greenebaum wrote. A recent study in Brazil found 27.2 cases of autism per 10,000 people, according to a Simmons Foundation article. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2010 report found rates as high as 121 per 10,000 in Arizona and Missouri to 42 per 10,000 in Florida.
Other studies put the rates at 16.1 in China, 11.7 in Indonesia, 10 in Israel and 1.4 in Oman. “Even though it seems like anybody and everybody has heard of autism, in many places in the world, it’s still sort of a new topic,” an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Macau, told the foundation. The CDC didn’t begin tracking autism rates in the U.S. until 2000.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
