Are the diagnostic rates of autistic females increasing? An examination of state‐wide trends

Background Autism has been considered a ‘male‐dominant’ condition. However, recent research suggests that autistic females are underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, and later diagnosed. Females may also have different and more nuanced behavioral profiles. To examine diagnosis rates of females, we used 20 ye...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child psychology and psychiatry 2024-07, Vol.65 (7), p.973-983
Main Authors: Harrop, Clare, Tomaszewski, Brianne, Putnam, Orla, Klein, Claire, Lamarche, Elena, Klinger, Laura
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnosis
Autism Spectrum Disorder - epidemiology
Autistic Disorder - diagnosis
Autistic Disorder - epidemiology
Child
Child, Preschool
Delayed Diagnosis - statistics & numerical data
diagnosis
Female
Females
Humans
Intellectual disabilities
late diagnosis
Male
Males
Medical diagnosis
Misdiagnosis
North Carolina - epidemiology
sex differences
Sex Factors
Trends
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background Autism has been considered a ‘male‐dominant’ condition. However, recent research suggests that autistic females are underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, and later diagnosed. Females may also have different and more nuanced behavioral profiles. To examine diagnosis rates of females, we used 20 years of state‐wide data to characterize historical trends in the diagnosis of autism in females to determine whether the proportion of females diagnosed with autism has changed over time. Methods Data were drawn from 10,247 participants (males = 8,319, females = 1928) who received an autism diagnosis between 2000 and 2021 from state‐wide autism centers associated with the University of North Carolina TEACCH Autism Program. Results The rates of females diagnosed with autism increased at a greater rate compared with males. Age of diagnosis remained consistently higher for females. Late diagnosis (defined as 13+) increased over time across both males and females, however, was more commonly associated with females, particularly those with co‐occurring intellectual disability. Conclusions Our results indicate that the proportion of females diagnosed with autism has increased steadily over a 20‐year period, which likely reflects greater societal knowledge of how autism may manifest differentially in females.
ISSN:0021-9630
1469-7610
1469-7610
DOI:10.1111/jcpp.13939