U.S. autism rates reach new height: CDC

About one in 88 children in the United States has autism or a related disorder, the highest estimate to date and one that is sure to revive a national argument over how the condition is diagnosed and treated.

The estimate released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention represents an overall increase of about 25 percent since the last analysis in 2006 and a near-doubling of the rate reported in 2002.

Among boys, the rate of autism spectrum disorders is one in 54, almost five times that of girls, in whom the rate is one in 252.

"One thing the data tells us with certainty - there are many children and families who need help," said CDC Director Thomas Frieden. "We must continue to track autism spectrum disorders because this is the information communities need to guide improvements in services to help children."

Advocates for people with autism seized on the apparent spike in the prevalence of the disease to call for more research to identify its causes and services for those affected by it.

"This is a national emergency and it's time for a national strategy," said Mark Roithmayr, president of the research and advocacy group Autism Speaks. He called for a "national training service corps" of therapists, caregivers, teachers and others who are trained to help children with autism.

Prevalence - About 1 in 88 children has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) according to estimates from CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. - ASDs are reported to occur in all racial, ethinic, and socioeconomic groups. - ASDs are almost 5 times more common among boys (1 in 54) than among girls (1 in 252). - Studies in Asia, Europe, and North America have identified individuals with an ASD with an average prevalence of about 1%. A recent study in South Korea reported a prevalence of 2.6%. - About 1 in 6 children in the U.S. had a developmental disability in 2006-2008, ranging from mild disabilities such as speech and language impairments to serious developmental disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism.

Some researchers have questioned whether the increases over the last decade are real or reflect greater awareness that has led parents and teachers to see symptoms of autism in children who would not have received the diagnosis a generation ago.

"Inevitably when these statistics come out, the question is, what is driving the increase?" said Roithmayr. Better diagnoses, broader diagnostic criteria and higher awareness, he estimated, account for about half the reported increase.

The largest U.S. study of childhood autism to date has found that about 1 in 150 have the disorder - a higher prevalence than previous national estimates.

The autism rate was about 6.6 per 1,000 in the new study based on data from 2002. It was released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, the agency had estimated the rate was about 5.5 in 1,000.