PS-352Characteristics Of U. S. Children Whose Parents Report They No Longer Have Autism Spectrum Disorder (asd)

Background/aimsOur objective was to determine the characteristics of children who do not retain an autism diagnosis.MethodsThe National Survey of Children's Health 2007, a nationally representative survey, asked parents whether a doctor or other health professional had ever told them their child had ASD. Thirty eight percent of those who responded affirmatively also reported that the child did not have ASD currently. We inspect the differences between the ASD-now and no-longer-ASD groups using design-corrected F tests and multivariate logistic analyses.ResultsCompared with the ASD-now group, the no-longer-ASD group was more likely to be minority (40.6 vs. 18.3%, p < 0.01), have parents with high school education or lower (45.6 vs. 28.3%, p < 0.05), and less likely to be of Hispanic ethnicity (8.0 vs 18.5%, p < 0.05). The no-longer ASD group was more likely to have had hearing problems (although not currently) (21 vs 10.5%, p < 0.05), and less likely to have had epilepsy and seizures (6.2 vs 13.1%, p < 0.05), developmental delays (55.6 vs 72.8%, p < 0.05) or learning disabilities (56.6 vs 80.3%, p < 0.01). Retaining the ASD diagnosis dramatically increased with income levels among minority children, while declining for the most affluent children.ConclusionsIn a nationally representative US sample, we found evidence that the groups most likely to be told they have ASD when they do not are minority, low-income children, particularly those with hearing problems.[Figure]