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Autism spectrum disorder in C hinese populations: A brief review
Author(s) -
Feng Lei,
Li Chunbo,
Chiu Helen,
Lee TihShih,
Spencer Michael D,
Wong John CheeMeng
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
asia‐pacific psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1758-5872
pISSN - 1758-5864
DOI - 10.1111/appy.12079
Subject(s) - autism spectrum disorder , incidence (geometry) , psycinfo , autism , medicine , demography , prevalence , epidemiology , medline , pediatrics , psychiatry , biology , biochemistry , physics , sociology , optics
This review summarizes the published work on the prevalence and incidence rates of autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) in C hinese populations. The authors searched MEDLINE , W eb of S cience and the PsycINFO database and identified seven studies that were published in the E nglish language. In mainland C hina, L i and colleagues reported an autism prevalence rate of 2.38/10,000 but admitted the possibility of underestimation. A higher prevalence of 11/10,000 was reported by Z hang and J i based on a survey that was conducted in T ianjin, C hina. In T aiwan, C hien and colleagues reported that the cumulative prevalence of ASD increased from 1.79 to 28.72/10,000 from 1996 to 2005 and the annual incidence rate increased from 0.91 to 4.41/10,000 per year from 1997 to 2005. Another study based on the T aiwan national health insurance database reported a high prevalence rate of 122.8/10,000 for the year 2007. Two studies based on the T aiwan national disability registry data reported an increasing trend of ASD for the period 2000–2007 and 2004–2010, respectively. In H ong K ong, W ong and colleagues estimated that the incidence of ASD was 5.49/10,000 and the average prevalence over the 1986–2005 period was 16.1/10,000. We identified 12 studies through the searching of C hinese databases. The prevalences among these studies varied from 2.8 to 29.5/10,000. While existing data appear to suggest, it remains unclear whether there is a true rise in the prevalence of ASD in ethnic C hinese population across geographic sites. More collaborative research on this topic should be conducted in the future.