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Weekly UpdatesBALTIMORE -- Hispanic and African American children are more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder after age 3 years than are white children, based on a retrospective study of more than 250 children with the disorder.
Hispanic children were almost three times more likely than were white children (odds ratio, 2.93) to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) after their third birthday. African American children were twice as likely as white children to be diagnosed with ASD after age 3 (OR, 2.1), Dr. Maria Valicenti-McDermott reported in a poster at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies.
The findings have implications for improving the outcomes for Hispanic and African American children, said Dr. Valicenti-McDermott of the children's evaluation center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.
Early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder has been associated with a better long-term prognosis. In light of this, the identification of factors associated with delays in diagnosis might be critical, she said.
"Programs that target underserved groups of children, their families, and their health care providers are needed in order to facilitate earlier referral for Hispanic children," the researchers wrote.
Dr. Valicenti-McDermott and her colleagues performed a chart review of 323 children (aged 1-6 years), who presented for a multidisciplinary evaluation between 2003 and 2008, and received a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.
A total of 42 children already had a diagnosis of ASD when they presented to the center and were excluded from the analysis.
The researchers reviewed the age at evaluation, sex, self-described ethnic group, level of maternal education, and use of private medical insurance or Medicaid (as a proxy for socioeconomic status).
The children had a mean age of 42 months. More than three-quarters (76%) were boys. In all, 45% were Hispanic, 31% were African American, 19% were white, and the remaining children were other ethnicities.
A total of 32% of the mothers were at least college graduates, 26% had some college-level education, 23% were high school graduates, and the rest had less than a high school education.
Half of the families were on Medicaid.
The difference in diagnosis after age 3 "was not accounted for by differences in the level of maternal education or the use of Medicaid vs. private medical insurance," the researchers wrote in the poster.
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