A coalition of researchers in the US and China released a journal report on the racial and ethnic disparities among children with autism over the last several years.
According to the research team, from 2014 through 2019, racial and ethnic disparities were evident in the trend of autism prevalence.
In the journal report published in JAMA, it was indicated that the prevalence of autism among Black individuals had surpassed White individuals based on data from 2018. The reason for the surge was due to an increase in autism diagnosis at a younger age.
“The decreasing trend in the prevalence of ASD between 2016 and 2018, especially the plateau in non-Hispanic White individuals, may suggest a stabilization of the environmental factors,” the journal report reads.
“The racial/ethnic disparities in ASD are complex and reflect multiple levels of inequities. These inequities range from individual etiologic factors (eg, genetic factors) and nonetiologic factors (eg, disease awareness and access to ASD evaluation) to environmental etiologic factors (eg, preterm birth and social experience in infancy).”
The study was authored by Jing Yuan, Minghui Li, and Kevin Lu.
