ATLANTA, Feb. 8 -- Autism spectrum disorders are much more common than previously thought, and could affect as many as one in 150 school-age children, CDC researchers reported today.
"Autism is more common than we believed and is an urgent public health problem," said Catherine Rice, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist at the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, in a briefing.
Data from a nationwide surveillance program conducted at sites in 14 states in 2002 suggest that the overall prevalence of ASD is about 6.6 per 1,000 eight-year-old children, ranging from a low of 3.3 per 1,000 in Alabama to a high of 10.6 per 1,000 in New Jersey, CDC investigators reported in the Feb. 9 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Even if the lowest prevalence estimates cited are closer to the actual prevalence rates, they are considerably higher than previously thought. Until this report, investigators have typically cited prevalence rates of between four to five per 10,000 and two to three per 1,000, based on the best available data.
