Researchers: One out of every 68 U.S. children has autism
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One in 68 U.S. children has autism, a 30 percent rise over the last estimate released in 2012, health authorities said Thursday.
The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised concern and sparked calls for early screening, as well as more research and investment.
Autism is a developmental disorder that has no known cause or cure. It affects people of all races with a range of difficulties in social, emotional and communication skills.
Recent research suggests the disorder may originate in the womb, and could be linked to defects that arise during prenatal brain growth.
The “proportion of children with autism and higher IQ (is) on the rise,” the CDC said in a statement.
Previously, as many as one in 88 US children were known to have autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.
The findings were based on diagnoses of eight-year-olds at 11 U.S. sites in 2010.
The prevalence of autism varied widely, from one in 175 children in Alabama to one in 45 children in New Jersey.
The data continued to show that autism is five times more common in boys than in girls. In the