I mentioned here a few weeks ago that I was interested in finding more about the origins of autism as it seems to have a strong genetic component and I wondered if cultures which were more genetically isolated would have different levels of autism.
Well the bad news is that I couldn't find much data at all - the info on the communities I though would be most useful is not available or in a language that is too challenging to translate with accuracy.
The most interesting research info I came across was US based and talked about the differences between ethnic groups for diagnosis.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/addm-community-report/spotlight-on-racial-ethnic-differences.html
This is a 2018 US report but is well written and quite accessable to read.
Note that the CDC has an alert at the top of the page that Trump is making them change the website so they don't know if the article will remain available.
The key points were a little surprising with whites being the least affected:
For the first time, the ADDM Network data found the percentage of 8-year-old children identified with ASD was higher among Black, Hispanic, and Asian or Pacific Islander (A/PI) children compared with White children.
Black - 2.93%
Hispanic - 3.16%
Asian - 3.34%
White - 2.43%
This is a surprise for me as the vast majority I have come in contact with have been white, certainly far more proportionally than their level of representation in the community.
There could be a lot of factors involved here - maybe my social circles are more exclusive than I though, maybe they have different views on sharing their diagnosis or maybe the higher rates of diagnosis are really only for youngsters who I don't really mix with much outside of my charity work.
Anyway, I just wanted to share the info here in case any were interested. I don't think there are any conclusions to be drawn from it but it does illustrate the genes seem present across all main cultural groups.