Autism in England: assessing underdiagnosis in a population-based cohort study of prospectively collected primary care data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Autism has long been viewed as a paediatric condition, meaning that many autistic adults missed out on a diagnosis as children when autism was little known. We estimated numbers of diagnosed and undiagnosed autistic people in England, and examined how diagnostic rates differed by socio-demographic factors.

Methods

This population-based cohort study of prospectively collected primary care data from IQVIA Medical Research Data (IMRD) compared the prevalence of diagnosed autism to community prevalence to estimate underdiagnosis. 602,433 individuals registered at an English primary care practice in 2018 and 5,586,100 individuals registered between 2000 and 2018 were included.

Findings

Rates of diagnosed autism in children/young people were much higher than in a

SUBMITTER: O'Nions E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10114511 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature