More Than 1 in 10 Boys in America are Developmentally Disabled

• by Marco Cáceres

• Published July 17, 2023
• Immune & Brain Disorders

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The prevalence of children diagnosed with developmental disabilities continues to rise in the United States, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The percentage of American children 3-17 years of age with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or a different developmental problem increased from 7.4 percent to 8.56 percent during 2019-2021.^{1 2 3 4 5}

The CDC’s latest National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) found that 1.8 percent of children in the U.S. were diagnosed with an intellectual disability, 3.11 percent (1 in 32) with ASD and just over 6 percent with some other developmental delay. The prevalence of children diagnosed with other developmental delays, such as cerebral palsy or speech disorders, increased the most—from 5.08 percent in 2019 to 6.06 percent in 2021.^{1 2 4 5}

Autism Diagnosed in 1 in 22 Boys

The NHIS pegged the rate of developmental disabilities for boys at 10.76 percent, compared to girls at 5.31 percent. The rate of autism for boys was also higher at 4.66 percent (1 in 22), compared to girls a 1.5 percent (1 in 66).^{4 5}

“It’s been a constant increase, it seems, with these national surveys, every time they measure it, it seems to go up,” said Maureen Durkin, PhD, MPH, chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Population Health Sciences. “[It] opens up an entire agenda of things we need to do to prevent disability and improve outcomes overall.”⁴

While it has been reported that the rate of autism in children did not increase by a “statistically significant amount” from 2019 to 2021, the rate increase was significant when compared to NHIS data for 2009-2011 and 2015-2017. In those previous surveys, the ASD rate was 1.1 percent (1 in 91) and 2.5 percent (1 in 40).^{4 6}

The 3.11 percent rate for ASD identified in the most recent NHIS report is also significant when compared to the ASD rate of 2.8 percent (1 in 36) for American children published by the CDC on Mar. 24, 2023. That rate was based on data collected in 2020 by the surveillance program funded by the CDC known as the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.⁷

Black Children Now Have Highest Rate of Autism

A major finding of the NHIS report is that, among race and ethnic groups, White children no longer have the highest rate of autism. Some 3.06 percent of White children in the U.S. were diagnosed with ASD in 2021, compared to 3.56 percent of Black children, 2.96 percent of Hispanic children and 2.87 percent of Asian children.⁵

This finding is consistent with the CDC’s analysis of the data from the ADDM Network:

For the first time among children aged 8 years, the prevalence of ASD was lower among White children than among other racial and ethnic groups, reversing the direction of racial and ethnic differences in ASD prevalence observed in the past.⁷

“There’s been an almost sea change in that in the last decade,” Dr. Durkin said. “For every time before there was this persistent disparity, with higher prevalence in White children, and in high socioeconomic status communities, which is unlike any other disability.”⁴

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