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Researchers have a new reason to believe that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in the U.S. has reached a plateau.
The evidence comes from the National Health Interview Survey, which polls American households about a variety of conditions. When a participating family includes children, one of those kids is selected at random to be included in the interview.
A new question was added to the survey in 2014: “Has a doctor or health professional ever told you that [the child] had autism, Asperger’s disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, or autism spectrum disorder?”
Between 2014 and 2016, this question was answered for 30,502 children ages 3 to 17. In 711 cases, the answer was “yes.”
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