Melbourne School of Population & Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Autism Res. 2024 Sep;17(9):1916-1927. doi: 10.1002/aur.3228. Epub 2024 Sep 2.
This study aims to assess the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and its treatment. The study population was children aged 3-17 years with information on current ASD from National Survey of Children's Health, 2016-2022. Analysis of treatment was also conducted within the population of children with a current ASD diagnosis. A multivariate log-binomial regression model was used to assess the change of current ASD prevalence and ASD treatment by two study period (prior to COVID-19 pandemic: 2016-2019; during COVID-19 pandemic: 2020-22) and sociodemographic information. Compared to the current ASD at 2.5% in 2016, it increased to 3.6% in 2022. The treatment has decreased from 70.5% in 2016 to 61.6% in 2022 for any treatment and from 27.2% in 2016 to 20.4% in 2022 for medication treatment. Compared to children from 2016-2019, children from the following group were more likely to have ASD diagnosis during the pandemic (2020-2022), including those aged 3-5 years (aPR = 1.66, 95%CI 1.29-2.13), non-Hispanic white children, children from family with above national family income, and those with private insurance. However, medication treatment almost halved during the pandemic for non-Hispanic black children (aPR = 0.49, 95%CI 0.26-0.93) and children born overseas. In conclusion, higher prevalence of ASD might indicate a better awareness of ASD. The reduction in treatment correlates to the health service disruption caused by the pandemic, highlighting the needs of policy efforts to improve treatment for ASD.
本研究旨在评估自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的患病率及其治疗情况。研究人群为年龄在 3-17 岁的儿童，其当前 ASD 信息来自 2016-2022 年全国儿童健康调查。还在患有当前 ASD 诊断的儿童人群中进行了治疗分析。使用多元对数二项式回归模型评估了两个研究期（COVID-19 大流行前：2016-2019 年；COVID-19 大流行期间：2020-22 年）和社会人口统计学信息对当前 ASD 患病率和 ASD 治疗的变化。与 2016 年的当前 ASD 患病率 2.5%相比，2022 年增加到 3.6%。任何治疗的治疗率从 2016 年的 70.5%下降到 2022 年的 61.6%，从 2016 年的 27.2%下降到 2022 年的 20.4%。与 2016-2019 年的儿童相比，在大流行期间（2020-2022 年），以下组别的儿童更有可能被诊断出患有 ASD，包括 3-5 岁的儿童（aPR=1.66，95%CI 1.29-2.13）、非西班牙裔白人儿童、来自家庭收入高于全国平均水平的家庭的儿童，以及拥有私人保险的儿童。然而，在大流行期间，非西班牙裔黑人儿童（aPR=0.49，95%CI 0.26-0.93）和海外出生的儿童的药物治疗几乎减半。总之，ASD 的高患病率可能表明对 ASD 的认识有所提高。治疗的减少与大流行引起的医疗服务中断有关，突出了政策努力改善 ASD 治疗的必要性。
