Study: Delay Found in Diagnoses of Autism in African American Children

Significant racial inequities exist in access to services for children with autism spectrum disorder.  In the September 2020 issue of Pediatrics, a new study, “Timing of the Diagnosis of Autism in African Americans,” has found that among a large cohort of African American children enrolled in an NIH Autism Center of Excellence gene discovery program, there was, on average, a 3-year delay between first parental developmental concern and autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. In addition, nearly half of parents reported seeing multiple providers before receiving an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, and 31.3% said that lack of available professionals contributed to this delay. These findings, posted online Aug. 24, highlight a pressing need to determine whether broad implementation of timely diagnosis and high-quality early intervention would reduce the substantially disproportionate number of Black children with autism whose conditions are complicated by intellectual disability, the authors write.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.