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autism and race - how common is it across the different groups out there

Iain

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.

Parents

  • I think a lot of it could be cultural either from fear of seeking help due to distrust of the whole system, in the US it could be because of the cost, there could also be bias on the part of psychologists etc who diagnose ASC and other conditions. Just  think of how long it took "the system" to recognise that ASC wasn't an exclusively male thing or that girls who were diagnosed didn't have some sort of "male brain".

    This is the sort of question that could open up a supermarket aisle full of cans of wroms, theres still a lot of poeple in this country who are in denial about how prevalent ASC is and any other learning difficulty, or see it as a middle class thing to excuse their children being not so good academically or as an excuse for poor parenting. Some groups might see anyone asking about ASC in thier comunity as racists with an agenda beyond pure research, or if they do trust the researcher wil worry what use the research will be put too.

Reply

  • I think a lot of it could be cultural either from fear of seeking help due to distrust of the whole system, in the US it could be because of the cost, there could also be bias on the part of psychologists etc who diagnose ASC and other conditions. Just  think of how long it took "the system" to recognise that ASC wasn't an exclusively male thing or that girls who were diagnosed didn't have some sort of "male brain".

    This is the sort of question that could open up a supermarket aisle full of cans of wroms, theres still a lot of poeple in this country who are in denial about how prevalent ASC is and any other learning difficulty, or see it as a middle class thing to excuse their children being not so good academically or as an excuse for poor parenting. Some groups might see anyone asking about ASC in thier comunity as racists with an agenda beyond pure research, or if they do trust the researcher wil worry what use the research will be put too.

Children
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