Good news! For those born before let's say 1980 autism diagnosis and/or detection were unheard of or not widely available and recognized. It appears that e.g. the autism spectrum disorder was maybe not recognized before 1979.
How much is parental reporting relevant to or valid in diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder in their children? What do parents miss? How much are they influenced or even misinformed by the medical profession?
"An early detection tool for autism, developed in Adelaide, Australia, has attracted interest from China, Japan, Mexico, USA, Indonesia and South America.
The early screening tool, known as Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC), is already available in Australia and has been made available free of charge to low-resource countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, China and Guayaquil (Ecuador). ...
The WHO estimates the prevalence of autism is around 1 in 100 people but other estimates suggest it may be even higher, up to 4%. The Centre Disease Control and Prevention suggests 1 in 36 children and 1 in 45 adults in the US have autism but the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare reports the incidence is about 1 in 150 people. These rates may vary across cultures.
It affects males four times more frequently than females. [very unfair I may say!] ..."
The WHO estimates the prevalence of autism is around 1 in 100 people but other estimates suggest it may be even higher, up to 4%. The Centre Disease Control and Prevention suggests 1 in 36 children and 1 in 45 adults in the US have autism but the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare reports the incidence is about 1 in 150 people. These rates may vary across cultures.
It affects males four times more frequently than females. [very unfair I may say!] ..."
From the abstract:
"Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) must be present early in development, but may not fully manifest until social demands exceed capacities. In the absence of adequate biological or brain imaging markers to detect and diagnose autism, diagnosis relies on clinical judgment based on observation of symptoms. Many tools have been developed in English-speaking countries (questionnaires for parents, symptom checklists for professionals, observation systems, etc.). Screening in countries with other languages requires cultural and linguistic adaptation of these instruments. This paper presents the adaptation of the ADEC (Autism Detection in Early Childhood).
Methods:
The original version of the ADEC was translated and culturally and linguistically adapted to the characteristics of the population of Guayaquil (Ecuador).
Participants:
A pilot study was conducted with a sample of 613 children aged 18-48 months.
Results: Cronbach's alpha values (0.89) indicate high internal consistency. The correlation between the MCHAT-R/F follow-up interview and the ADEC (mean r = 0.93) indicates high construct validity. In terms of predictive validity, using the original cut-off points of the ADEC, they show excellent diagnostic ability. The sensitivity and specificity results (sensitivity 1.00; specificity 0.92; positive predictive value 0.83; negative predictive value 0.99) are even better than those obtained in a similar study in the Mexican population.
Conclusions:
Considering that the MCHAT R/F is a parent-reported instrument, the Guayaquil Spanish version of the ADEC (ADEC-GU) seems to be a suitable instrument to be used in a complementary way as a second-level screening instrument for autism, before resorting to a full diagnostic process."
Considering that the MCHAT R/F is a parent-reported instrument, the Guayaquil Spanish version of the ADEC (ADEC-GU) seems to be a suitable instrument to be used in a complementary way as a second-level screening instrument for autism, before resorting to a full diagnostic process."
Autism screening tool goes global (original press release)
Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC) in a Low-Income Spanish-Speaking Population in Guayaquil (Ecuador) (open access)
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