Sun Yat-sen University, China.
Maternity and Children Health Care Hospital of Luohu District, China.
Autism. 2023 Jul;27(5):1283-1294. doi: 10.1177/13623613221132743. Epub 2022 Nov 4.
Does being born in a family of high socioeconomic status mean a higher risk of being diagnosed with autism? The evidence from the Asian area is lacking. This research was conducted among 6049 toddlers who went through an evaluation-diagnose procedure of autism and whose parents were surveyed during the national survey of China, 2016-2017. Parents reported their education levels, occupations, family income, and ethnic background. We recruited the toddlers and parents from kindergartens, communities, and hospitals in five geographically representative areas of China. On average, these toddlers were 23 months of age. We found toddlers whose mothers had less than 9 years of education (junior middle school or below) had 2.46 times the chance to get a diagnosis of autism, compared with toddlers whose mothers had more than 15 years of education (college or above). We also found that 1.17 toddlers could be diagnosed with autism in each 100 Chinese toddlers. These findings have important implications for providing support to families that have low socioeconomic status, especially families with a mother who did not complete 9 years of education. Early detection programs focused on children from low socioeconomic backgrounds should be promoted.
出生在高社会经济地位的家庭是否意味着患自闭症的风险更高？亚洲地区的证据不足。这项研究是在 2016-2017 年期间进行的，共有 6049 名幼儿接受了自闭症评估和诊断，其父母参与了全国调查。父母报告了他们的教育水平、职业、家庭收入和种族背景。我们从中国五个具有代表性地理区域的幼儿园、社区和医院招募了这些幼儿及其父母。这些幼儿的平均年龄为 23 个月。我们发现，与母亲受过 15 年以上教育（大学或以上）的幼儿相比，母亲受过不到 9 年教育（初中或以下）的幼儿被诊断为自闭症的几率高 2.46 倍。我们还发现，每 100 名中国幼儿中就有 1.17 名可能被诊断出患有自闭症。这些发现对于为社会经济地位较低的家庭，特别是母亲未完成 9 年教育的家庭提供支持具有重要意义。应推广针对社会经济背景较低的儿童的早期检测计划。
