Two-fold increase in the prevalence of autism in Israel between 2017 and 2021: Developmental Diseases and Conditions – Autism

2023 APR 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Pediatrics Daily News -- According to news reporting based on a preprint abstract, our journalists obtained the following quote sourced from medrxiv.org:

“The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased steadily in most high-income countries over the last decade. Estimates of ASD prevalence among 8 year old children in the U.S. have increased from 1.47% in 2010 to 2.3% in 2018, and up to 3.5% among 3 to 17 year old children in 2020.

“In Israel, estimates have been lower, with the prevalence of ASD in 8 year old children increasing from 0.3% in 2009 to 0.64% in 2018. Here, we examined data from the entire population of Israel (~3 million 1-17-year-old children) and quantified changes in their ASD prevalence between 2017 and 2021. We analyzed consecutive annual reports acquired from the Israeli National Insurance Institute (NII), which monitors all children with ASD in Israel who receive welfare services, and Clalit Health Services (CHS), the largest Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in Israel that services ~50% of the population. Both data sources revealed a nearly twofold increase in the ASD prevalence of 1 to 17 year old children during this five-year period. Rates differed across age groups with 2 to 3 year old (day-care) children exhibiting a ~4.4 fold increase in prevalence from 0.27% to 1.19% and 4 to 6 year old (pre-school) children exhibiting a ~2.3 fold increase from 0.80% to 1.83%.

“These results demonstrate that ASD prevalence in Israel is increasing at unprecedented rates and shifting towards diagnosis at earlier ages.

“These findings highlight the challenge facing health and education service providers in meeting the needs of a rapidly growing ASD population that is being diagnosed at earlier ages.”

This preprint has not been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: http://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.02.23287784v1

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