February 10, 2009 — New research shows that 1 in 5 children born more than 3 months premature screens positive for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by age 2.
The latest findings, from the Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns (ELGAN) study, show that 21% of such children screen positive on the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) at 24 months. But after excluding children without motor, vision, hearing, or cognitive impairments, 10% screened positive for symptoms of the disorder.
In unselected children aged 16 to 30 months, research has shown that 5.7% screen positive for autism during routine well-child-care visits.
"Children who are born more than 3 months premature appear to be twice as likely to screen positive on the M-CHAT," principal investigator Karl C.K. Kuban, MD, from Boston University, in Massachusetts, said in a statement.
Investigators also found that nearly half of the children with cerebral palsy and more than two thirds of those with visual or hearing impairments screened positive on the M-CHAT.
The study was published online January 28 in the Journal of Pediatrics
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