Parents who have a child with autism have about a 1 in 5 chance of having a second child with autism, a far greater risk than previously believed, new research shows.
The findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, are significant because they come from the largest study to date focusing on the risks of autism among siblings.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, Mind Institute tracked 664 infants who had an older sibling with an autism spectrum disorder. The babies joined the study at 8 months of age and were followed until they reached 36 months. TA vast majority of the children did not go on to develop autism, but about 19 percent of the children were given an autism diagnosis.
Based on the study population, that suggests that roughly 1 in 5 younger siblings of children with autism go on to develop the disorder. In the past, it was thought that about 1 in 10 younger siblings of children with autism go on to develop the condition, an estimate that was derived from studies of much smaller groups.
By comparison, about 1 in 110 American children born today, or fewer than 1 percent, will be given a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. That means the younger sibling of an autistic child has nearly 20 times greater risk of developing autism than a child in the general population. The study found that for families with two or more autistic children, the risk is even higher. About a third of children with two or more autistic older siblings also will develop the condition.
Read more at: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/autism-risk-for-siblings-higher-than-expected/
No comments:
Post a Comment