Brief Report: Prevalence and Severity of Auditory Sensory Over-Responsivity in Autism as Reported by Parents and Caregivers

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2022-03, Vol.52 (3), p.1395-1402
• Main Authors: Carson, Tana B., Valente, Matthew J., Wilkes, Bradley J., Richard, Lynne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustics; Adolescent; Adult; Adults; Age Differences; Auditory Perception; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnosis; Autistic Disorder - complications; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Brief Report; Caregivers; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child, Preschool; Children; Complications and side effects; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diagnosis; Health information; Humans; Incidence; Mental health; Middle Aged; Neurosciences; Noise; Parents; Parents - psychology; Pediatrics; Perceptual Impairments; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Prevalence; Psychology; Public Health; Severity; Severity (of Disability); Symptoms (Individual Disorders); Young Adult
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-021-04991-0

Auditory sensory over-responsivity (aSOR) is a frequently reported sensory feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, there is little consensus regarding its prevalence and severity. This cross-sectional study uses secondary data from the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R; Item 72: undue sensitivity to noise ) housed in the US National Institute of Mental Health Data Archives to identify prevalence and severity of aSOR. Of the 4104 subjects with ASD ages 2–54 ( M  = 9 , SD = 5.8) who responded to item 72, 60.1% ( n  = 1876) had aSOR currently (i.e., point prevalence) and 71.1% ( n  = 2221) reported having aSOR ever (i.e., lifetime prevalence). aSOR prevalence and severity were affected by age, but there were no associations with sex.